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^ SUGGESTION FOR THE 

,M^9 )ESTRUCTION OF POVERTY 

THE CURBING OF CUPIDITY 

AND THE LESSENING OF CRIME 







/Tf 



By ROBERT MUGGE 



TAMPA, FLORIDA, 
1909 




Class. 
Book.. 



.:• ■■ - 



. 



Copyright^ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: 



Practical Humanity 

A SUGGESTION FOR THE 
DESTRUCTION OF POVERTY 
THE CURBING OF CUPIDITY 
AND THE LESSENING OF CRIME 



BY 

ROBERT MUGGE 



TAMPA, FLORIDA 

1909 



S.V 



Copyright, 1909 
E. MUGGE 



CCU258843 



"Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
crites ! * ' * * Ye blind guides which strain at 
a gnat and swallow a camel." 

— Christ 



"It is true no age can restore a life, whereof, 
perhaps, there is no great loss; and revolutions of 
ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, 
for the want of which whole nations fare the 



worse. " 



— Milton. 



PBEFACE. 



"Give us this day our daily bread/' — Christ. 

Good old Mother Nature can be made to pro- 
duce an abundance to supply every human being 
on earth, with all the necessaries of life, all the 
comforts and not a few of the luxuries. Read 
this little book and learn how. 



PRACTICAL HUMANITY 



PART I. 

THE DISEASE. 

The world we live in is very big, and some of 
us in our own estimation are about on a par as to 
greatness and importance; at the same time do 
we ever reflect that the world is in another respect 
very small and ourselves just a little more than 
nothing? 

We observe in the heavens a bright star and 
it appears to our defective vision one of the nearest 
to the earth, yet that star is at such a distance 
that it is only of late years astronomers have suc- 
ceeded in measuring it, and made the discovery 
that it is one million miles in diameter; that if this 
earth could be fired into it as a ball is driven from 
a rifle, the impression made would not be much 
greater than a No. 4 shot on a proportionate target. 
So we see the world is after all but a very small 
bit of this great Universe and we are so much 

7 



8 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

smaller that it would take a celestial microscope 
to discover our existence. A great thought this 
when we come to consider the kingdoms of the 
world and the glory of them. Insignificant as we 
may appear, however, we are here for some pur- 
pose, facing two great forces, — good and eviL 
With the origin of these forces or influences we 
have in this treatise nothing whatever to do; the 
fact remains that they are here, at constant war- 
fare, and that we have to fight on one side or the 
other, either to overcome the evil with the good 
and advance to a higher civilization, or else to suc- 
cumb as other nations have done in the past, viz., 
relapse into barbarism, leaving only a few broken 
monuments as relics upon the shores of time to 
show those who come after what we once had been. 
" Destroy Evil?" cry some enthusiasts; "blot it 
out of existence V This is the biggest fool propo- 
sition of the age, for two reasons: first, the past 
history of the world shows that it cannot be done, 
and second, because people forget that evil is nec- 
essary, and indeed takes a very important place 
in the economy of the universe. What we call 
good depends upon the existence of evil, and evil 
exists only in relation to good; and as matters 
stand in the world today one cannot exist without 
the other. Destroy evil, # and there is nothing to 
fight; destroy evil, and you do away with all hopes 
and fears and aspirations, and make us little better 



.PRACTICAL HUMANITY 9 

than a community of idiots; destroy evil, Oh! all 
ye preachers and upholders of perfection, and 
your business is gone. No ? This world is a battle- 
field and evil is to be overcome and regulated and 
kept within proper bounds but never destroyed, 
which latter is the idea conveyed in the Biblical 
maxim that does not call for the destruction of 
evil but the conquering of it, when it says, "Be not 
overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." 
At times we may even find it necessary to permit 
and license and regulate a lesser evil to avoid being 
overthrown by a greater one. 

This idea of the destruction of evil is the cause 
of more worthless freak laws being passed by our 
various state legislatures to compel men to be good 
against common sense and natural instinct, which 
latter educates, builds up and sustains but never 
resorts to brute force except in cases where the 
evil has so overcome the good in the intellect that 
a man becomes a walking menace to society. 

CUPIDITY AND POVEETY. 

The direct causes of crime in the world may be 
placed under the above two heads; indeed, it is 
doubtful if the first one may not be considered in 
itself a crime. Poverty is a misfortune that may 
come on a man without any fault of his own; in- 
deed he may be born into it; but cupidity is a fault 



10 PRACTICAL HUMANITY 

for which he is personally responsible and it is 
the father of poverty. Cupidity corners wheat and 
necessary products of all descriptions; it puts up 
prices on the consumer, crushes the poor without 
mercy, stands like a rock impervious to the wail- 
ings of the storm or the waves that beat against it, 
sucks the lifeblood of the nation, ruins thousands 
of our young men who leave school and college to 
go into business with its ruinous maxim of today, 
viz., "Get money, honestly if you can, but in any 
case get it, and if possible get it all." Dr. Lyman 
Abbott, successor to the late Henry Ward Beecher, 
said in an address given to the students of Harvard 
College, not long ago: 

"I have heard temperance orators say that the 
saddest tragedy of life was that offered by a bright 
young man going forth into the world and blasting 
his hopes by drunkenness. But it seems to me 
that the picture of a young man leaving college 
with high ideals of manhood and life, entering 
business and there learning to conform to business 
standards, losing his conscience and moral dis- 
cernment, is a far sadder tragedy, and one as fre- 
quently, if not more frequently, seen than the 
other. ' ' 

If poverty, then, is the cause, or we may say, 
the father of crime, cupidity is its grandfather, 
for it is the cause of poverty. Oh! say some of 
these great philosophers, the people in the world 



PRACTICAL HUMANITY 11 

are only fulfilling the course of all nature and 
proving the doctrine of "the survival of the fit- 
test/' and to illustrate their point they show us a 
fruit tree and call attention to the proportion of 
blossoms that fall off; then of weak buds that drop 
and never come to anything, while comparatively 
few reach perfection and produce good, healthy 
fruit. Let the poor die then; they were born to die; 
let the weak child depart and the healthy hold its 
own; the poor, the sick, the weak and the puny 
may just as well, like the weakling blossom or bud, 
die and make way for those who are stronger and 
have the energy and vitality to hold their own. 

Oh! great philosophers! Oh! the Daniels come 
to judgment! If the weapon used to crush you is 
the jawbone of an ass, it will be sufficient if it does 
the job. If you take that fruit tree used in your 
illustration and care for it, and prune and fertilize 
it, seeing that it is properly irrigated, how many 
blossoms and buds will fall in comparison to the 
many that will come to nothing if the tree is neg- 
lected? In the natural course of events you may 
lose a few, but are you not morally certain of a 
good, sound crop of fruit? That is the secret, and 
we propose in this treatise to offer a common sense 
solution by which we can build up the vital tissues 
and send the healthy sap pulsing through the bark 
of this poverty-stricken tree. 

Poverty causes crime and other evils in the f ol- 



12 PKACTICAL HUMANITY 

lowing manner: A hungry man often becomes a 
criminal by reason of his hunger. Victor Hugo 
gives a striking illustration of this in his celebrated 
work, "Les Miserables. ' 9 Hunger will drive a man 
to steal and, once having sacrificed his self-respect 
to the call of poverty, the descent into graver 
crimes is easy. Hunger will drive people to com- 
mit petty offenses for the very purpose of being 
sent to jail, where at least they will be clothed and 
fed. Poverty is the chief cause of drunkenness, 
to drown the sorrow and misery of the heart. 
"Drink!" cries the fanatical prohibition preacher, 
who floods the country with old granny stories, 
imaginary experiences and what we may term re- 
ligious fabrications, and who has never seen any- 
thing of the world outside the little sphere that 
surrounds his conventicle, " strong drink is the 
cause of poverty and consequently of crime. ' ' Will 
he answer the question, then, How many drunk- 
ards do you find amongst contented, well fed men? 
Very few indeed in proportion to the crowd that 
feel the pressure of the millstone of poverty. A 
comfortable home and a well cooked dinner will 
do more toward keeping a man straight than all 
your paternal laws and so-called " temperance" 
societies. The late Miss Frances Willard, presi- 
dent of the " Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union," saw enough of the world to enable her to 
say a short time before she died, "I used to think 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 13 

drunkenness caused poverty, but I have lived to 
learn that poverty causes drunkenness. " This 
fearful evil was looked upon even in olden times as 
such abject misery that King Solomon, said to be 
the wisest man who ever lived, prescribed wine 
and strong drink as a sort of partial relief when 
he said, in the last chapter of the Book of Proverbs, 
verses 6 and 7, "Give strong drink unto him that is 
ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of 
heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his pov- 
erty, and remember his misery no more. 7 ' 

Would that Andrew Carnegie, outside of en- 
dowing libraries and seats of learning, could pre- 
sent some of these would-be teachers who know 
not the world with a trip ticket that would allow 
them to travel and observe; they would perhaps 
return to their people with their darkness light- 
ened and (if honest) give utterance to the words 
of Miss Willard, viz., " Poverty is the cause of 
drunkenness;" to which we add, it is the father of 
crime. 

Grandfather Cupidity comes in, however, and 
holds in his grasp all the old 25- and 30-percenters, 
all the bloodsuckers of the poor. Most people mis- 
quote the words of the ancient writer and give 
them as, ' ' Money is the root of all evil. ' ' He never 
said anything of that kind. What he said was, 
' ' The love of money is the root of all evil. ' ' Money 
in itself is all right in its place and only becomes 



14 PRACTICAL HUMANITY 

a curse when used to the detriment of the nation. 
But what does the love of money do? Why, it 
destroys all sentiments of humanity and dries up 
the fountains from which should flow that charity 
that covers a multitude of sins. It makes brutes 
of men and fools of women. The man wrapped up 
in commercialism morning, noon and night, watch- 
ing the markets in hope of making what he calls 
u a scoop" and so being advertised to the world 
as a great financier, cares nothing for home life and 
spends the few moments he can spare from his 
business in the privacy of his club. The wife, left 
to her own resources and having more money at 
her command than she knows what to do with, has 
only the desire to outshine her silly companions in 
social life, and so goes in for all kinds of nonsensi- 
cal fads. The American family, especially in the 
New England states, is fast becoming a thing of 
the past, and were it not for the so-called " foreign 
element," those states would soon be depopulated. 
Children are no longer wanted, but pug dogs 
and monkeys are petted and toted about and maids 
employed to care for them. It is nothing strange 
now to read of vast sums being spent on dog or 
monkey parties, weddings or funerals. If there 
should happen to be a child it (if a boy) is left to 
the care of servants, and, if a girl, is encouraged 
instead of fondling a doll, which instills the in- 
stincts of maternity, to pet a " Teddy bear" or a 



PRACTICAL HUMANITY 15 

" Billy Taft possum!" Time indeed was it for 
the Chief Executive to sound the tocsin and alarm 
the nation by calling attention to the curse of this 
race murder — worse a thousand times over than 
the evil pf drink. Kipling says, * ' Truth is a naked 
lady and people do not always care to have her 
presented without the traditional fig leaf." But 
at times it becomes necessary to strip off all cov- 
ering, and it is a pity that we must be compelled 
to admit the above sad facts. It is evident and 
clear to the most superficial observer that cupidity 
and poverty are the head, front and foundation of 
all the evils that are steadily undermining the bul- 
warks of this nation; that the rich are getting 
richer and the poor are getting poorer — and to 
what end? 

CUPIDITY A MENTAL POISON. 

Many people on reading the above will say: 
What you state is correct enough, but after all this 
evil of cupidity is confined to but a small percent- 
age of the nation and it will not be so hard to 
regulate when the mass of the people wake up to 
the facts. It is the capitalist, the multi-millionaire, 
the Wall street magnate, and big stock dealer, that 
are impregnated with this disease, but the bulk of 
our citizens are content as their forefathers were, 
to get along with moderate means and a comfort- 



16 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

able living and will be satisfied so long as they 
can obtain that. Ah ! good people this is just where 
the trouble comes in and I will prove to you that 
these very men who have realized fortunes and 
are still adding to them, some of whom have com- 
menced business on practically nothing have by 
their example and boasted success poisoned the 
minds of a vast multitude of the best young men 
and women in our country; have rendered them 
dissatisfied with their lot, have instilled into their 
aspirations the bogus maxim of "get rich quick," 
and have driven and are driving thousands of the 
finest youth in the land, to poverty, degradation 
and ruin, and is sapping the life-blood of the na- 
tion. Let us take a striking example. — Every 
citizen knows that the agricultural element forms 
the foundation on which the success and advance- 
ment of the country depends. The people who pro- 
duce what we have to buy, sell and eat, are the 
mainstay of the Union. Carpenters, painters, rail- 
road men, miners, etc., etc., may go on a strike, 
and while it affects business in a detrimental way 
in certain localities for a longer or shorter time, 
the country pulls through without any very seri- 
ous set-back. Let the farmers, however, all go on 
a strike, and where would we be? Echo answers, 
' ' Where ? ' ' With our mills all shut down ; our rail- 
roads tied up for want of freights to carry; our 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 17 

ships rotting at the docks, trade and commerce 
paralyzed; business all at a standstill; little or 
nothing to eat; well indeed may you shout out., 
"Where would we be?" Yet the danger is im- 
minent; the poison has been injected by the money 
kings of the country and the young men and 
women are pouring into the cities and abandoning 
the farms. They are overcrowding the professions 
and trades and only adding to the great disease we 
are endeavoring to root out. Read the following, 
as reported lately by the associated press: On the 
15th of September 1909, two important divisions of 
the American Bankers Association, viz: the trust 
company section and the clearing house section 
met in convention in Chicago and an open discus- 
sion of details of financial problems to be solved 
if possible in trust companies and clearing houses, 
took place. Mr. James J. Hill, speaking of the 
comparative decline of the United States as an 
agricultural country said. Now mind he was not 
addressing a meeting of the general public, such 
as you see in election campaigns, but he was 
speaking to bankers and financiers, men who are 
well posted in the business of the country, and had 
he made a mistake or presented anything but solid 
facts he would very sooii have been called down. 
Perhaps it will be better to give his speech just as 
it was reported and published by the general 
press, and it will be well for you to read every word 



18 PRACTICAL HUMANITY 

of it in connection with the subject with which 
I am dealing. Mr. Hill said : 

" We have almost reached a point where, owing 
to increased population without increased produc- 
tion per acre, our home food supply will be in- 
sufficient for our own needs ; within ten years, pos- 
sibly less, we are likely to become a wheat im- 
porting nation; the percentage of the population 
engaged in agriculture and the wheat product per 
acre are both falling; at the same time the cost 
of living is raised everywhere by this relative 
scarcity of bread, by artificial increase in the price 
of all manufactured articles, and by a habit of 
extravagance which has enlarged the view of both 
rich and poor of what are to be considered the 
necessaries of life. These plain facts should dis- 
turb and arouse not only the economic student, but 
the men who are most intimately related to the 
wealth of the nation and most concerned that it 
shall not suffer loss or decreases." 

Mr. Hill declared that never yet has enhanced 
cost of living, when due to agricultural decline and 
inability to supply national needs, failed to end in 
national disaster. 

Mr. Hill said the farm is our main reliance and 
that every other activity depends on that. He as- 
serted, however, that the majority of people fail 
to realize practically the declining status of agri- 
culture in the country. "They are misled by the 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 19 

statistics • of farm values and products, mounting 
annually by great leaps, into thinking that this 
absolute increase implies a relative advance of this 
industry as compared with others/' said he. "Ex- 
actly-the opposite is the case. I refer not merely 
to the quality and results of our tillage, but to the 
setting of the human tide away from the cultivated 
field and toward the factory gate or the city slum. 
This is something whose consequences for evil are 
as certain as if the aggregate deposits in all the 
banks of this country were decreasing by a fixed 
percentage every ten years, while their loans were 
increasing by another percentage just as stable. 
You would know what catastrophe that assured 
by and by. 

"It means the same thing, in kind and conse- 
quences, when the agricultural population, the 
producers and depositors in the great national 
treasury of wealth, is declining year by year, while 
the city population, which thrives only by drawing 
drafts upon the land and cannot live a year after 
these cease to be honored, rises at its expense. Yet 
not only is such a crisis approaching, but it is being 
hastened by legislative stimulation in favor of 
other industries while overlooking this. 

"In 1790 only about 3.4 per cent of the 
American people lived in towns. At the time of 
the Civil war the percentage h^d risen to 16. In 
1900 more than 31 per cent, of our population was 



20 PKACTICAL HUMANITY 

urban. The change is portentous; and there is no 
doubt that the coming census will show it to have 
proceeded in the last ten years with accelerated 
speed. 

"With our annual increase of over 1.5 per cent, 
in population from natural causes, and immigra- 
tion that has not been less than three-quarters of 
a million any year since 1902, there will be from 
two to two and a half million more mouths to feed 
every year. Having in view this increase in 
population, the declining average yield per acre 
of cultivated land in the United States after it has 
been farmed for a few years, the rise of per capita 
consumption with a higher cost of living and the 
movement of the working population away from 
the land, the time is now approaching when we 
shall not only cease to be a wheat selling nation 
but will find it necessary to import a portion of 
what we consume. 

' ' Our foreign trade in the past has rested main- 
ly on our exports of products drawn from the earth 
directly, or only once removed. Our manufactures 
for export are to a large extent natural products 
subjected to a few simple processes. How are we 
to meet the immense trade balance against us, how 
prevent financial storms of frequent occurrence and 
destructive force; how feed the coming millions, 
if the farmer, who pays most of the bills, has re- 
tired to the city or the country town in order that 



PKACTICAL HUMANITY 21 

his children may the better enjoy their automobiles 
and enter into the delights of the social game? 

"'You deal with wealth in its most condensed 
and universal form. That wealth is the slow ac- 
cretion of many centuries. It changes its form and 
occupation with wonderful facility; but, so slight 
at all times is the margin between the world's 
production and its consumption, that its savings 
have been acquired almost as slowly and painfully 
as the miser's hoard. Practically only a few 
months lie between a universal cessation of pro- 
duction and the destruction of the human race by 
starvation. The marvelous diversity of modern 
industry and its products blinds us to the bare 
simplicity of the situation. Those who, like you, 
are main factors in supplying to industry the 
means to carry it on, who open up the main and 
lateral channels through which the fertilizing 
stream of capital may be turned upon the other- 
wise barren field of labor, should be always mind- 
ful of the first great source and storehouse of na- 
tional wealth, and the most sensitive whenever it 
is depleted or endangered." 

From the above you see what the country will 
come to if the present state of affairs continues, 
viz : the abandonment of the farms, and you also 
see that Mr. Hill attributes this to the desire of the 
farmer to get into town that his family and self 
may enjoy the social advantages to be obtained 



22 PKACTICAL HUMANITY 

there rather than in the country. This is the onlj 
point on which I have to take issue with him, foi 
it will be found independent of anything else thai 
the percentage of farmers who can afford to throw 
over the farm and move into the cities to live in 
comfort on what they have made, is very small. 
Those who have travelled, especially over the north- 
ern, eastern and some of the middle states, and 
observed the vast number of fine farms lying idle 
and made inquiries as to the cause, have learned 
that the desire to abandon the land does not 
originate with the heads of the families, and they 
have also learned that the primary cause is the 
desire to abandon the honest and healthy work of 
the farm, that has been instilled into the minds of 
the rising generation by the money kings of the 
country. The success of some of these men, that is 
paraded in the daily press, and the knowledge that 
many of them started while very poor, leads the 
young farmer to believe that he can go and do 
likewise. Perhaps some one of his associates who 
has made the city his home, happens to strike a 
lucky blow and make a success, which at once be- 
comes the signal for dozens of his former com- 
panions to become dissatisfied, drop the plow 
handles and rush in to make their fortunes. These 
deluded young fellows never stop to think that for 
every one who succeeds twenty go down, fully half 
of them to almost absolute poverty, and the others 



PRACTICAL HUMANITY 23 

to what people call "scratching for a living." The 
poison of cupidity has done this work for them, the 
false and generally dishonest maxim of "get rich 
quick." 

Many young men all over the country who have 
a smattering of education, rush into the profes- 
sions, and overcrowd them, which desire is not 
alone confined to the farming community. The 
legal profession is overrun by men, with but little 
knowledge of law, who have slipped into it some- 
way and find their level as shysters and petti- 
foggers, up to any trick, honest or dishonest to get 
money. Many a young lawyer today is resurrect- 
ing graveyards and digging up the bones of the 
dead to find enough business to keep himself alive, 
who would be better in mind and body and indeed 
happier walking in a furrow behind a plow. In a 
leading Detroit paper, under an editorial headed 
"Wanted — Fewer Poor Lawyers, More Good 
Carpenters," the following language is used: 

"By all means raise the qualifications and keep 
raising them if necessary to keep down the over- 
crowding which drives so many lawyers who would 
otherwise be honorable men into unprofessional 
practices. Tt is not fair to the young men to admit 
them to the practice of a profession for which they 
are unfitted and in which they can make a living 
only by dishonesty." 

The above is as true as gospel. Visit the police 



24 . PKACTICAL HUMANITY 

courts in some of our large cities and see the class 
of so called attorneys who practice there, on the 
lookout for the last dollar some poor fellow has in 
his pocket. Why an onlooker, to view them jost- 
ling each other with cunning, eager, hungry eyes, 
might not be considered very far off his base if he 
came to the conclusion that the Devil was giving 
some of his imps an airing. Yes? it is the over- 
crowding of the profession that produces these 
harpies of the law, who if they have any daily de- 
votions always begin them with "Let us prey." 

Many a man who tacks M. D. after his name, 
having been boosted into the profession through 
favoritism, or on the strength of some diploma, 
from a so called medical, obscure college, situated 
somewhere at "the back of God speed," would do 
more to benefit the human race with a hoe in his 
hands, than perhaps having to appear at a final 
accounting with a big row of scalps at his belt for 
an exhibit. 

Many a budding theologian, whose physical 
powers are fully equal to swinging an axe, but 
whose mental abilities are not quite up to the 
mark of solving the abstruse problem of conclud- 
ing what he does not know, had far better let 
X equal 0, take up that axe and swing it. 

So with the trades, second and third class 
men whose proper place would be tilling the 
ground, crowd in, and drive skilled labor to the 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 25 

wall, and when we see the class on whom depends 
the prosperity of the country, viz: the rising 
generation of farmers pouring into the cities, and 
the old people unable to work the land or employ 
labor, so that the farm has to be sold for what it 
will bring, mortgaged or abandoned, we may well 
re-echo the w r arning of Mr. Hill. Instead of reap- 
ing fortunes in the cities they are only aggravating 
the disease of poverty and consequently crime and 
all through the poison of cupidity imbibed from 
the holders of wealth. Mr. Hill says that if this 
thing goes on, we will in a few years be importing 
instead of exporting farm products. This may be 
possibly so, but it is not likely that Uncle Sam, 
with these thousands of acres of good land at his 
back, will stand for that. No? Something else 
will be imported also and that is labor. We must 
understand that Uncle Sam occupies the position 
of the head of a great family, and every citizen and 
everyone who has declared his intention of becom- 
ing such and made this country his or her home, is 
to be considered one of the family. He cannot 
afford to have one branch of this big family kick 
over the traces to the ruin of all the rest, and if 
reason or persuasion or stern facts or sad experi- 
ence will not induce the youthful American to go 
back to the farm, he will have to bring in the alien 
to save the country. Like the apostle of old, when 
the Jews threw him down, he will have to turn to 



26 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

the Gentiles. Many of these deluded young men 
who in pursuit of that Will o' the wisp, wealth, 
land in the " slough of despond," turn on those 
through whose temptation they fell, join societies 
hostile to all government and become revolution- 
ists of the most rabid type, prepared to wreck 
everything in their disappointment, while a vast 
number go to join the ranks of poverty and crime 
and all due to cupidity with its cry of "go thou and 
do likewise," "get rich quick." 

This is what the money power is responsible 
for. By cornering the wealth and the food pro- 
ducts of the country they have already made a dis- 
contented people and the consequent rise in the 
price of bread and other necessary staffs of life 
is making a hungry people; the two together will 
soon make a revolutionary people and there will 
be the devil to pay if the thing is allowed to go on. 
In the face of all this we may well then ask the 
question, viz : 

WHITHER ARE WE DRIFTING? 

To nobler and better things, says the optimist, 
who refuses to open his eyes to stern facts. We 
are, he says, getting wiser, consequently we 
must be getting better, forgetful of the fact that 
this very wisdom may in the end turn out to be the 
excess of folly and the very instrument of our de- 



.PRACTICAL HUMANITY 27 

struction. True, we are getting wiser and making 
vast and rapid improvements in the arts and sci- 
ences of civilization, but are we getting any better? 
That is the great question that faces us. Is kind- 
ness and humanity and charity and the desire to 
help our fellow man raise himself to a higher plane 
keeping pace with our wisdom, or is the opposite 
the case ? Is crime increasing or decreasing as we 
grow wiser? Are there fewer men in our jails and 
penitentiaries? Have we found it necessary to 
decrease the staff of criminal judges, sheriffs, 
police or other officers of the law ? Is grafting and 
swindling, rascality and general cussedness on the 
decrease or the increase? Are men growing good 
by reason of starvation wages or lack of work? 
Are girls and young women more incited to lead 
pure and virtuous lives by a refusal to pay them 
sufficient wages to induce them to be honest and 
good? Just look over your own little community 
in these cases and answer Yes to the above ques- 
tions if you can. Yet another great inquiry, viz., 
Where is the bulk of the money going that comes 
out of the pockets of the people by government 
taxation ? What is the whole world at large doing 
with the cash? Is it used for educational purposes, 
or in developing the agricultural and mineral pro- 
ductions of the country, or for public works ? Yes, 
we can answer this latter question in the affirma- 
tive, but lo and behold! the principal works just 



28 PRACTICAL HUMANITY 

now toward which this money goes is to erect forti- 
fications, mobilize armies, build " Dreadnoughts" 
and every kind of machine of infernal ingenuity 
for the murder of the human race. Oh! we are 
surely growing better as we get wiser — preparing 
to kill each other in many instances for our sup- 
posed duty toward God. " Hypocrisy, thou art a 
jewel," for here we have men in high positions 
tolerating and encouraging this sort of business in 
all the blaze of our so-called advanced civilization, 
while poverty, misery, hunger, disease and crime 
are eating away the hearts of a discontented, 
because an oppressed and abused people. The 
American people will stand a great deal and are 
slow to make a break, but the unprejudiced ob- 
server can see that they have stood this state of 
affairs in these United States just about as long 
as it is possible to do so, and if driven to an open 
revolution they will wreak a vengeance terrible to 
think of. " Peace! Peace!" is the cry of those 
plutocrats when there is no peace, for they are at 
this moment sleeping over a volcano and fail to 
realize the fact. 



PART II. 

REMEDIES THAT FAIL. 

CHARITY. 

It is not my purpose to underrate or belittle 
the spirit of Love or Charity. There is an old 
saying that it " covers a multitude of sins." That 
saying holds good in the world of today and if a 
man has the reputation of being kind-hearted and 
helping with his means the poor and oppressed, 
people as a whole will look over or excuse a great 
number of his faults. In dealing with cupidity or 
greed, charity has nothing to do, because a cure for 
this grandfather of crime is hard to find. The 
only way in which cupidity can be overcome is 
by a total reformation of the man afflicted with it, 
or the putting of himself under the influence of 
the good force as against the evil. Even then the 
ghost of old cupidity is found at times hovering 
about him with its ever ready beckoning finger 
tempting him back into the old ruts. If charity as 
we understand it was destroyed the world would 
be in a bad way and in dealing with it the plan is 
to show the good that can be done and is done by 

29 



30 N;\rTh'AL HUMANITY 

its proper application and the evi] that follows 
the carrying out of ;i false idea of charity. The 
building and maintaining of hospitals and iniirma 
pjes Cor the Indigent sick, and the upholding of 
institutions to take care <>r the old and feeble 
when do Longer able f<> battle with the world and 
who are without the means to maintain themselves 
in the decline of life, is all well. The cal] Por chari 
table assistance when greal and unexpected catas 
trophies come upon a community, when dead in- 
line proves herself rerj much in evidence and Calls 
upon thousands in calamities such as the destruc 
lion of Messina by earthquake, the burning of San 
Francisco, the Johnstown Hood or the wreck of 

Galveston; (hen charity shines, even though 

cupidity follows in her track and much of that be- 
slowed Cor^he relief of humanity is gobbled up by 

a soulless gang Of thugS, grafters, swindlers and 
scoundrels. Charity in these cases becomes a 

necessity and the world as a rule has shown that 

il is not wan! ing in it ; hut applied as it commonly 
is as a remedy lor poverty, it is nothing more than 
an opiate. For example, a few dollars avc dealt out 
to aid a hungry man or his family and the result is 

temporary relief and only that. Are we doing any 
good by ibis or only increasing the evill Are no1 

(he after effects worse than Hie relief lha( is for 
the moment given f Is il not like the dose of nior 
phine a physician throws into a suffering patient 



PBAOTICAL HUM wrrv ;i 

that for a time produces an easement of the pain 

Only to be followed when the effects of the drill; 

wear off by an increase of the torturel The pangs 
of li i ni^4*< k i - lor the time removed by the hand of 
charity only return with double force, and then 
when perhaps relief can no longer be found and 
the hand is slaved through inability to assist any 
further, the poverty stricken patient by reason of 
his hunger and misery is driven into erime. Yes, 
poverty is the father of drunkenness and crime, and 
charily as commonly understood is powerless to 
cure it; it is like the dose of morphine. 

EDUCATION. 

Is this a cure £ It is not. Why? Because, lirsf 
and foremost, it is nothing more than a ghastly 
farce to fry and educate hungry people. In the 
city of New York, when the children of all classes 
were compelled by statute to submit to education 
and the law was out with its posse of truant officers 
to arrest and bring into school all children of a cor 
tain age, that the said law might force them to be 
educated in the great name of the slate, hundreds 
of poor Mil le scholars fainted at their desks, and it 
was discovered upon investigation that they were 
actually starving, some oven obliged to come into 
school without a mouthful of breakfast. Oh! the 
shame and the misery and the infernal hypocrisy 



32 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

that would allow such a state of affairs to exist in 
that big rich city with all its Wall street magnates 
and boasted public institutions. Of course, when 
discovered open-hearted charity came in to pro- 
vide a meal for those children whose parents from 
the grind of the poverty mill were unable to sup- 
ply it; but what is this after all but temporary 
relief without any lasting certainty of its contin- 
uance, and only dependent upon the good will of 
the givers. 

Education, I admit, is one of the great bul- 
warks of a nation, but it may under certain cir- 
cumstances become a fearful menace to society. 
It stands to reason that it would be dangerous to 
attempt the education of a hungry and- discon- 
tented people, for by so doing you place in their 
hands a terrible weapon that may be turned 
against you eventually and perhaps wreck the 
country. The seeds of crime planted by poverty 
once sprouted and fostered by education produces 
a race of dangerous criminals, and you are placing 
in their hands the means by which the criminal in- 
tent is guided by an educated intelligence that will 
be made to work a greater evil than would other- 
wise be the case. In every instance indeed where 
the moral force is lacking in the individual educa- 
tion does more harm than good. Look at our peni- 
tentiaries today and find out whether the great per- 
centage of convicts is made up of that great "buga- 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 33 

boo," "the ignorant foreigner," or civilized Ameri- 
can educated scoundrels. If you take, for ex- 
ample, the greatest state prison in the country, 
that of Missouri, you will find this to be the case. 
Men high in intelligence are today doing time in 
our jails and penitentiaries, and the large army of 
swindlers, defaulting cashiers, government graft- 
ers and even a few ex-United States senators are 
there to tell the tale. 

What, then, do we propose to do about this? 
The facts are apparent, and I challenge denial. 
Educate the people and kill crime, you say. Yes, 
that is all right. Educate the people, certainly, 
but not on empty stomachs. Give them plenty of 
work at good living wages, with plenty of harm- 
less recreation; make them happy and contented, 
so as to destroy criminal intent, then educate them; 
but stow book learning into them as things stand 
now in the greater part of this country and you 
place arms in the hands* of soldiers who, when suf- 
ficiently enlightened, will turn and rend you. Will 
we never be wise, or are we destined to continue 
perched forever upon the seat of folly? 

Another thing to be considered under this 
head, viz., there are some races you cannot at- 
tempt to educate without great danger to society. 
Take the negro, for instance. As soon as he ac- 
quires the rudiments of education the average 
negro will stop working and seek to be a dema- 



34 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

gogue. He will pose as a preacher, as a lawyer or 
a politician, and in eight cases out of ten you make 
a criminal of him and the little learning he has 
acquired lands him in jail or the state prison. 
Hold not up your hands, Oh ! brothers of the North, 
as though you doubted the truth of this statement. 
In support of it I can appeal to the judges of the 
Southern criminal courts, to the sheriffs and 
officers of the law, to the attorneys who prac- 
tice in those courts, also to every Southern 
white man and to those Northern men who 
have resided in the South for some years and 
observed the trend of events. Why should this 
be so? you ask. Because in the average negro 
the animal nature still predominates and he 
lives only to gratify his natural appetites and de- 
sires. If you proceed to give him any education 
and are successful in doing it, you have produced 
an intellectual animal who will apply his acquired 
knowledge to the fulfillment of his passions and 
carnal wants. It may be that in time to come we 
may educate the negro, but he must undergo sev- 
eral generations of a higher development before it 
will be safe to send him to school. Take the 
masses of the race and the exceptions to the above 
rule are few. It is to the ignorant, not the edu- 
cated, negro the South looks today for labor and 
trustfulness. 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 35 

LAW. 

Ah! here we are at last with that great and 
vaunted remedy, "the big stick." "What is 
Law?" some may ask, for there is much difference 
of opinion in the answer to this question when you 
come to investigate the minds of various classes of 
men. The old books define it as "a rule of action 
prescribed by a superior power," and all agree 
that under it every man is entitled to at least three 
things, viz., his life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness. Perhaps we might take issue with the 
old writers upon the last item, for when we look 
about us we discover that after all there is but 
little true happiness in this world and the princi- 
pal exertion of mankind in this particular con- 
sists in efforts to get away from trouble. If the 
third item in his bill of rights read, "the pursuit 
of knowledge," it would appeal much better to 
the common sense of the people. "What do you 
understand by law?" was once asked a candidate 
for admission to the Florida bar. 'Why," he re- 
plied, "everybody knows that; law is law, and 
that 's all there is to it. ' ' But, all jokes aside, when 
we take down the big book of statutes that every 
state possesses, with enough law in them to rule 
other worlds than ours, with our own thrown in, 
it is enough to make a horse laugh to read some of 
them and wonder what sort of brains the legis- 



36 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

lators had who helped enact them. Brains cer- 
tainly may have been there, but sense was just as 
certainly absent, and the consequence is that while 
some statutes are enforced, there is no attempt 
whatever made to enforce a very large proportion. 
"Why," you ask; "do you mean to tell me, sir, that 
laws are there and yet remain practically dead 
letters?" Yes, I do, and the reason is because the 
public sentiment is against certain laws and you 
cannot enforce a law where the opposing sentiment 
of the bulk of the people is against it. Look at 
your Sunday laws; are they enforced? Now and 
again a little splurge is made in certain localities 
by a few of the "righteous over much," but it only 
amounts to a flash in the pan and they are openly 
ignored by a great proportion of the public every 
week. Look at your so-called "dry" counties, 
where they claim to quash crime by the applica- 
tion of no license laws, and do we not see outside 
of the lack of business prosperity, blind-tigers and 
boot-leggers in full swing, with just as much 
liquor consumed, and A No. 1 at that, just as many 
and even more drunks, the same number of officers 
of the courts, and in proportion to population just 
as many criminals as in those counties where it 
is sold under license, while the no license counties 
are out a big revenue for no purpose at all outside 
of gratifying a fanatical sentiment? 

Look at your state prohibition laws — and take 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 37 

Maine, that stands today a monument of perfidy 
and hypocrisy to the whole United States, with 
her statutes openly defied. You say this is not 
the case? Then read the working of prohibition 
in the state of Maine, with the facts and statistics 
given by that impartial authority, Mr. Holman F. 
Day, and get 'round it if you can. Why is it, also, 
that this year the United States has issued 358 
licenses to liquor dealers in that state? Oh! but 
in most cases where laws are not enforced the offi- 
cers are to blame? Perhaps they are in a sense, 
but how can they act when the large majority of 
people in a community say "No"? Example, "Mr. 
Sheriff, don't you know that the law prohibits the 
sale of liquor in this county in order to lessen crime 
and that beer and whisky are openly sold in such 
and such a town?" "Yes," answers the officer, "I 
know it, but the citizens there want things to go 
that way; they don't want the town dry." "Mr. 
Sheriff, you know your duty, execute it. You are 
sworn to enforce the law." Mr. Sheriff gets to 
work and says, "Boys, you must close up; no more 
beer or intoxicating liquors can be sold here; it is 
against the law." "We must close up, eh? You 
are going to ruin business, are you? You are going 
to enforce your crank law, are you?" 'Very well, 
Mr. Sheriff, stand again for election and we'll all 
vote against you and teach you a good lesson." 
Yes, and over again this has been done where the 



38 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

officials have gone in opposition to the sentiment 
of the majority, even when that was against the 
law. 

"But," you may say, "did not the majority 
vote for that law and should not it rule?" They 
did, but there are laws passed under certain condi- 
tions where the minority for the time being con- 
trols the majority and influences or coerces people 
to vote against their convictions. 

For example, the canting prohibitionists, know- 
ing that men do not like to carry on a warfare with 
women and children, and not daring to submit their 
cause to argument and common sense, shelter 
themselves behind a class of women who are either 
of a masculine or else a weak, sentimental or hys- 
terical disposition and behind a crowd of little 
children who do not understand, casting to the 
winds, at the same time the teachings of the 
Founder of that religion they hypocritically pro- 
fess to follow. A young man is forced to the polls 
by some young woman he admires and votes 
against his convictions because she pins a piece of 
ribbon on his coat, while if she has any sense of 
honor she despises him in her heart for doing it. 
Men are threatened with loss of business and even 
social ostracism by this for the time powerful 
minority and so vote against their better judgment. 
These laws fail, why? — because when the excite- 
ment dies out and common sense and sober after- 



PKACTICAL HUMANITY 39 

thought resume their sway, they find they voted 
against reason and made things in most cases worse 
than before. Then they decide this law shall not 
be enforced. Let it stand if you want it so but we 
will down every official who attempts to put its 
screws on us. So it is all through the country, viz., 
that a law to which the sentiment of the majority 
is opposed becomes practically a dead letter, and 
so every paternal and crank statute that interferes 
with a man's personal liberty and his pursuit of 
happiness or knowledge is destined to fall to the 
ground. It is powerless to prevent poverty and 
consequently crime. 

Stop this foolishness then and get down to real 
business and common sense. Do you suppose you 
can legislate a man into being good? Goodness 
knows it has been tried long enough. The New 
England States tried it with a vengeance and look 
at them now with their old population dying out 
in race murder and their divorce courts, one of the 
greatest curses this country ever saw, grinding 
away in full blast; yes, worse a hundred per cent 
than drunkenness, for the latter may down an indi- 
vidual, but divorce downs and. smashes up the 
home. You do not make a tramp any less a tramp, 
by putting him upon the chain gang because he 
violated the law by saying he was hungry and 
wanted something to eat; instead you may have put 



40 PKACTICAL HUMANITY 

him in the way of becoming a criminal, and the 
next time he gets hungry he may steal. 

Certain laws that the reason of the people ap- 
prove, for the protection of life, home and prop- 
erty, stand and are enforced because the public 
sentiment favors them, but you will ever find, that 
the less poverty, the less law is required to regu- 
late crime, because the latter will not be in evi- 
dence ; the more contented the people are, the less 
law becomes necessary to govern them; but when 
they are poor and hungry and discontented often 
the rigid enforcement of certain statutes aggra- 
vates the disease they were intended to control. 

SOCIALISM. 

Like a peddler on a patent medicine wagon cry- 
ing out the curative qualities of his wares, so the 
socialist preacher of to-day calls to the people on 
all sides to come and accept this great cure-all. — 
Corner all the capital, then have a big divide-up 
and give to each man , share and share alike. So 
we hear on every hand, "down with the pluto- 
crats," "down with the monopolists," "down with 
the government, and all upholders of capital," 
"down with this, and down with that," until at 
times we are tempted to call out with the enthu- 
siastic Teuton: "down with everythings; no noth- 
ings." But is socialism as it is preached a cure 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 41 

for the evils I am discussing. No, sir! For should 
you take all the money in the world and place it 
in a big heap at the feet of the socialists for an 
even divide, you would be right up once more 
against old cupidity; greed would assert itself; the 
man with the ten talents would be there to take 
away from the man who has only one talent; the 
big fish would gobble up the little fellows and 
make things worse than before. 

Socialism also takes away a man's individu- 
ality and puts everyone on the same footing — the 
wise man with the fool, the business man with the 
tramp, the most educated white man with the most 
ignorant negro — all stand side by side on equal 
footing and get share and share together at the 
public crib. 

Some of the ideas set forth in what people call 
economic socialism are good enough in their way 
and a few of them are embodied in this book, but 
Socialism, as it is commonly preached, will not 
work, and what is more, it never has worked, while 
its moral teaching alone would disrupt society. It 
stands to reason, and the past history of the w T orld 
proves it, that there must be a head to everything 
— a supreme ruling intelligence — to guide and 
command society and that must be all-powerful. 
We cannot be anarchists yet! Why? Because 
anarchy means " without law/' and we are not 
good enough to be anarchists and never will be 



42 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

while evil is in the world. Here we must have law, 
to regulate and control this ; we must have a ruling 
power, viz., a government, and we cannot get along 
without it. If we should in the future go, as some 
tell us, to that place called heaven, then we can sit 
down in peace, fold our hands and all be anarchists 
because there will not be any evil to fight, conse- 
quently no law. Another thing, clear to every 
thinking man, is that the intelligence of the world 
has ever ruled it and does so today. Whenever 
ignorance and brute force has risen against this 
intelligence and sought to overcome it, the result 
has been ruin and an all-round general smash-up, 
and has always ended in humanity holding out its 
hands to its intelligence and asking to be lifted up 
again. 

The great French revolution was commenced 
and engineered by Socialists. Danton, Camille- 
Desmoulin, and their associates flung the banner 
to the breeze inscribed with the motto " Liberty, 
Equality and Fraternity." I do not deny that the 
people suffered from great abuses under the mon- 
archy at that time, and socialism undertook to cor- 
rect them. What did they do"? They destroyed 
the monarchy, beheaded the king, queen, and all 
the nobles they could lay hands on; then like the 
rattlesnake when surrounded by fire, turned and 
proceeded to destroy each other. To such lengths 
did they go that the cry of Madam Roland upon 



PKACTICAL HUMANITY 43 

the scaffold has become historical: "Oh, Liberty, 
Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!" 

Danton, Desmoulin, and the men who set the 
ball rolling when they saw the results and the fear- 
ful abyss toward which the nation was rushing, 
tried to call a halt, and were themselves marched 
up the steps of the scaffold by the institution they 
helped create, and butchered by their own " com- 
rades," who then, with Robespierre at their head, 
turned on each other and murdered thousands, 
rich and poor. 

Robert Owen, the father of English socialism, 
who denounces marriage as the source of all pros- 
titution, about the same time tried it in that coun- 
try where it proved a failure. He th^n came to the 
United States, started a community on the same 
individual standard, which also went down, while 
others who followed his example suffered the same 
shipwreck. Not very long ago the socialists se- 
cured control of the government in Australia and 
went to such extremes that a storm of indignation 
was raised of so violent a nature, that the social- 
ist government was compelled to resign without 
even being allowed an opportunity to appeal to the 
country, and the conservatives again went into 
power. 

Some cities have tried it in a municipal way, 
but it never seems to work. The city of Lyons, 
France, under a socialist council put prices down 



44 PKACTICAL HUMANITY 

so milk could be purchased at three cents per 
quart and other things in proportion, with the 
result now of a wasted city treasury and an extra 
tax on the citizens to make up for all this. There 
is an old saying that "the proof of the pudding is 
in the eating"; why then should we desire to adopt 
a system that has been " weighed in the balance 
and found wanting/' that wherever and whenever 
tried has only ended in disrupting law and order, 
put extra burdens upon the people, and caused 
general confusion, let alone anything of a more 
serious nature. 

No, Socialism is not the remedy to lessen crime 
by destroying poverty and controlling cupidity, 
and we will now consider a plan, which in my 
humble opinion, will go far toward accomplishing 
this desired object. 



PART III. 

THE CUEE. 

Every city, town and country village has its 
percentage of grumbling critics and would-be re- 
formers. How some of them manage to exist is 
a problem, for they never seem overburdened with 
work. Each country store and local postoffice has 
forever its little squad whose chief employment 
seems to be holding down the heads of barrels and 
boxes, and overhauling the government. At every 
election it is a noticeable fact that not more than 
two in ten of those solons take sufficient interest 
to qualify and vote, and if they do muster energy 
enough to go to the poll it will generally be found 
some interested candidate had to use all his per- 
suasive powers to get them there, not the least of 
which was paying their poll taxes. It is amusing 
though, after a number of these would-be reform- 
ers have gone through a big show of argument to 
the effect that the government is a robber, that 
the trusts are destroying the country and every- 
thing is fast going to hades, to have some old fel- 
low who perhaps listened but did not say very 
much, take his pipe out of his mouth and throw a 

45 ' 



46 PRACTICAL HUMANITY 

bombshell into the camp by drawling out the ques- 
tion, "What are you going to do about it?" This 
has proved a squelcher to more than one discus- 
sion and we have frequently found it raise feelings 
of wrath. "Gentlemen, what do you propose to 
do about it?" — a question that is now up to me. 
People must admit that the disease exists, and if 
the reader is satisfied that cupidity and poverty 
are the chief causes of crime and that history and 
daily observation prove the failure of the so-called 
remedies I have noted, then it is right and proper 
to ask me, "Have you a specific remedy, and if so, 
what is it?" 

There is in my opinion a plan that if properly 
carried out will go far toward doing away with 
some of those great evils. Let every thinking man 
ask himself, "What is the secret of good govern- 
ment?" and will he not come to the conclusion 
that if you can bring contentment to the masses 
of the people you have practically solved the prob- 
lem ? To do this, is it not necessary to see that they 
have plenty of work, with good living wages for 
that work, so no one will go hungry; and lastly, as 
once before remarked, plenty of harmless recre- 
ation? There is a saying in the navy, "All work 
and no play makes Jack a dull boy," and the same 
is true in all classes of society. A grind from one 
end of the week to the other, no matter how well 
paid, wears out the human body and so produces 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 47 

a discontented mind. There ought to be five pub- 
lic holidaj^s for every one that is now given the 
nation, for the vitality of the latter will be sapped 
if we continue living at high pressure as the 
American people are doing today. This being the 
aim of good government, viz., to bring peace, 
plenty and prosperity to the citizen, the main ob- 
ject at the start to effect this is to put a curb on 
cupidity, the grandfather of crime, and, do away 
with poverty, the father of crime. So I will pro- 
ceed to make my plan as clear as possible. 

THE PLAN. 

Within the boundaries of these United States 
there is sufficient land now lying idle that if util- 
ized and cultivated and the products properly dis- 
posed of, would raise every man, woman and child 
in the country above want; in fact, make them 
comfortable. A large portion of this land is still 
under the control and ownership of the central 
government at Washington, much of which is 
offered at a nominal sum for settlement by citizens 
subject to certain conditions of residence, improve- 
ment, etc., for a limited time, the fulfilment of 
which secures the property to the settler. Yet we 
find thousands of acres of valuable land practically 
going begging. Each state also has under its own- 
ership and control vast sections that are about in 



48 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

the same useless condition at the present time. 
The idea is for the central government, if it has not 
sufficient land properly located of its own, to pur- 
chase from each state in the Union a vast tract to 
be utilized as a government colony, subject to the 
rules and regulations of the central government 
in the same manner as a military reservation. 
Within this colony it is proposed to establish all 
trades and manufactures, with the machinery that 
may be necessary to foster them. Good, clean, 
habitable houses for the colonists; colleges, schools, 
reading-rooms and all institutions of learning; 
stores of every description; theaters and other 
places of amusement ; restaurants, cafes and board- 
ing houses, with government inspectors to see that 
everything is kept in a clean, sanitary condition 
and that the rules made for the proper manage- 
ment of the colonists are carried out and enforced. 
The doors of this colony to be open to any human 
being who wishes to go there, and to his family 
should he desire to take them. He is allowed to 
enter whenever he pleases and come out when he 
pleases, with one obligation only, viz., he, figura- 
tively speaking, goes in without anything and he 
comes out without anything. On entering he is 
given a time card and pays for whatever he gets 
there with his time, and he will not be allowed to 
work over a certain number of hours each day, be- 
cause it will be to the interest of the government 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 49 

and the residents to see that everyone is kept in a 
good, healthy condition of body, which could not 
be done if a man is allowed to overwork himself. 
Within that limit he can live just as comfortable 
or just as poor as he pleases, according to the 
amount of labor he gives for what he purchases, 
but he must work to some extent, for no one will 
be allowed to idle all the time, or beg, or live upon 
the labor of others. 

Money will be an unknown quantity within the 
limits of the colony; everything, even a ticket to 
the theatre, coming off the time card. The products 
of the different trades, manufactures, professions, 
etc., outside of a portion which goes to the govern- 
ment, which will be explained later on, to go to- 
ward the support and maintaining of the colony. 
Let us take a few examples now. A carpenter comes 
to town seeking employment, "I am a practical me- 
chanic, and must have work for the support of 
myself and family. ' ' " Very sorry, my dear fellow, 
but times are dull; no men of your trade wanted 
just now." "What am I to do, starve?" Yes, in 
many cases as things are now in some of our big 
cities, the poor fellow may starve, and his family 
with him. He wanders about all the week, seeking 
employment, and on Saturday night goes home to 
the wife and little children empty-handed and in 
despair, unless he has managed to keep the wolf 
from the door for a few days by a loan made by 



50 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

some pawnbroker on the few tools he may have 
had in his kit. Oh ! the misery of it. What a temp- 
tation to resort to the " flowing bowl" for tem- 
porary relief to his wretched mind. But with the 
system I propose in force, there is no necessity for 
his suffering, for he can enter the doors of the 
colony and take his whole family with him if he 
wishes, and under such circumstances it will not 
be any surprise if he remains there. So with every 
trade and profession, without any exception what- 
ever, all can, should they so desire, find a home in 
the colony. We will come down the ladder a little 
and say that a " tramp" enters the city; one of 
those unfortunate waifs of society. He is told 
that he cannot beg, so he has the choice of going to 
jail, or on the chain gang, or into the colony. If 
he chooses the latter, as will probably be the case, 
he will have to work off his time card in order to 
keep alive and also submit to the rules, and I ven- 
ture to say your jails and chain gangs will not be 
overcrowded with these human waifs, for once 
having experienced the comforts and advantages 
of the proposed system they will take the colony 
every time where an opportunity is afforded for 
making them respectable members of society. 
Should a man, however, get discontented or refuse 
to obey the regulations, or insist on behaving in 
a disorderly manner, he can go back or be put out, 
as the case may be, to encounter the tender mercies 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 51 

of the state and civil authorities. Only as he came 
in so he goes out, receiving only what he left at 
the door, if but a patched up pair of pants and 
battered hat. 



NUKSEKIES FOR THE NATION. 

Do you mean then that these proposed colonies 
are to be looked upon and supported simply as 
relief camps ? By no means. They are intended 
for a far higher purpose than the giving of mere 
temporary relief to the poverty-stricken and op- 
pressed, for conducted as it is intended they should 
be, they will prove the very bulwarks of the nation 
in the production of strong, healthy citizens to 
populate this country. Let me be plain. In the 
first part of this little book, in considering the 
evils from which we suffer, reference was made to 
race suicide, which means the killing of the infant 
before it is born, and to the fact that the nation 
was degenerating in consequence of this and the 
neglect of the home. It was shown that the Chief 
Executive found it necessary to raise his voice in 
protest, and also that were it not for the vast tide 
of immigration pouring in from foreign shores this 
nation would soon die out. We do not see this evil 
yet to such a great extent in the Southern states, 
where the women are more home-loving; but in the 
New England states many of the old American 



52 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

families have vanished already, and foreign names 
taken their places, and it will not be long before 
the evil now in our midst will corrupt society all 
over the land. The home is the foundation of the 
nation, and if the mother neglects the home and 
proper care of the children and gives it up for 
clubs, politics, and all sorts of fads, leaving the 
home practically to run itself, the result is mani- 
fest, viz., the children will be without guidance and 
the end will be ruin. There is another evil, how- 
ever, which menaces the nation, and that comes 
from the children of the poor. The curse of infan- 
ticide has not yet attacked the laboring classes as 
a mass, being mostly confined to the business and 
middle classes and the so-called four-hundred, who 
consider themselves the society people; but the 
poverty-stricken families and those who do not get 
sufficient remuneration for their labor to properly 
nourish their bodies, are producing children that 
are stunted, weak and of sickly constitutions, 
destined to fall under the attack of perhaps the 
first malady that may lay hold upon them. How 
can a woman bring forth a healthy child when she 
is obliged while carrying that infant, not only to 
do the lowest kind of drudgery in the way of daily 
work but often to go without sufficient food to 
satisfy her hunger, let alone the demands of the 
poor child. It is a crying shame such a state of 
affairs should exist among a people that claim to 



PRACTICAL HUMANITY 53 

be as advanced as we are, but it is so all the same, 
and the big thieves who have driven the nation 
into this condition only sit on their money chests 
and are content to let the people be damned for all 
they care. 

Now, in these colonies, as well as seeing that 
everyone is properly nourished and the system 
kept in a good sanitary and healthy condition, it 
is not proposed to have women work who are car- 
rying the unborn, but taken the best possible care 
of, so that the child comes into the world as perfect 
a little human machine as can be produced. It is 
also intended that so long as the child needs the 
mother's attention the nation owes it to her to see 
that she is paid for taking care of it, and that 
should be allowed on her time card. There is no 
need whatever for the birth of weak and sickly 
infants in these states ; such was never intended by 
nature, and if poverty is knocked out and the 
mothers cared for, diseased children will be prac- 
tically unknown. This stands to reason. Why? 
Because no machine was ever made to break down, 
and the human body is a machine. For a time 
being it has to be taken care of by those who are 
trained in the proper knowledge to handle it, until 
the child reaches such an age that he or she can 
run it alone. Then what happens? Why, the care 
of the machine devolves upon its owner and the 
working of it partakes something of the nature of 



54 PRACTICAL HUMANITY 

a bank account. Every time an excess is commit- 
ted, or an evil rushed into that tends to injure the 
machinery and get it out of whack, a cheque is 
cashed; and every time proper care is taken of it 
and the necessary rest and nourishment given, a 
deposit is made. If we would only stop now and 
again when tempted and ask, What am I going to 
do with my body, cash a cheque or make a deposit*? 
what injury to the human race might be avoided. 
As it is now, many of us forget this, until some 
day a cheque is presented and a very grim looking 
cashier in the shape of the dread reaper faces the 
applicant at the wicket, tells him his time is up, 
stamps the cheque with "no funds," informs him 
that overdrafts are not allowed at that bank, and 
invites him to step into the spirit elevator and go 
up or down, as the case may be. 

We have also stated in the second part of this 
treatise, under the head, " Remedies that fail," 
that socialism among other things falls to the 
ground because it takes away a man's individual- 
ity, which this colonial remedy proposes to culti- 
vate to the highest degree. No matter how strong 
and healthy the body may be, some people 
are born intellectually with ten talents, some with 
five and others with only one, and this runs all 
through nature. Plant the seed of a cabbage or 
any other vegetable, for instance, and no matter 
what care or cultivation you give the plants, some 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 55 

will form strong, hard, heavy heads, and others 
may not come to half the size, and so it is with the 
human race. How often do we see men of great 
talents held down and unable to give them to the 
world, perhaps from the pressure of poverty or 
such a force of circumstances that they never have 
been able to get a start, while bull-headed fools or 
people with little or no ability who have been 
born with a golden or silver spoon in the mouth, 
lord it over men who have, figuratively speaking, 
more brains in the little finger than these other 
fellows carry under their plug hats. Men like Poe, 
Hendley and Chatterton died in absolute want, the 
latter committing suicide, and their abilities went 
for nothing until they passed over the line, when 
the praise or censure of the world amounted to 
little so far as they were concerned. This evil 
will be a thing of the past and the man with ten 
talents given full swing to exercise them, while he 
with the one talent will be trained to put even that 
to the best use. Be he a sculptor, a historian, an 
artist, a musician, an engineer, a mechanic, a busi- 
ness man — whatever his bent, the duty of the gov- 
ernment should be to develop the power he may 
show to the very fullest extent, that to these grtfat 
training schools the nation can eventually turn for 
those who can guide its destinies or help it onward 
in the advance to a higher civilization. 

I will admit that all this cannot be done from 



56 PRACTICAL HUMANITY 

the start, because for a considerable time the 
colonists will have to look to the outside world 
for their teachers; but eventually by the proper 
carrying out of the system the teachers will come 
from the colonists and the nation will look to them 
for its supply. So you see, a man will not lose 
anything of his individuality, and there will be a 
managing head to the whole business in the central 
government, which will lay down the rules, laws 
and regulations that everybody must obey, just as 
we have to submit to law now, and outside of this 
everyone will be his own free agent to do just what 
he pleases. The object, then, is not to make these 
colonies mere relief camps but nursing schools for 
the nation, to build it up with healthy, strong, in- 
telligent people as against the degeneration that is 
going on today. 

HELP TO THE GOVERNMENT. 

We come to another important point here that 
directly affects the Federal Government on the 
question of expense. Look at the vast sums of 
money from time to time lost to the treasury by 
grafters, bogus contractors and swindlers, who 
play every kind of a gouge game to clean out Uncle 
Sam's pockets. Now and then a fellow is caught 
up with and placed in what Artemus Ward called 
" Durance Vale," but when we think of the amount 



; PRACTICAL HUMANITY 57 

stolen by those who escape detection we can hardly 
be surprised at our heavy taxation, for it would 
seem a necessary consequence that the government 
has to be the greatest thief of the lot in order to 
make up for the vast sums stolen from it by its 
subjects. 

Establish these colonies and what, may we ask, 
is there to prevent the government from locating 
all its institutions inside of them to the assistance 
of all parties. It can purchase its needed sup- 
plies from the colonies and thereby in time balance 
accounts, allowing in price the same it would have 
to pay on the outside. What is to prevent the 
navy yards, the naval academies and other federal 
institutions from being established within their 
boundaries ? There will not be the same opportuni- 
ties to steal because there will not be any money to 
get at, and with the elimination of poverty and of 
money within these colonies the authorities will 
save in other ways in that it will tend to remove the 
causes of crime. It will be found that your crimi- 
nal courts, jails, United States marshals, sheriffs 
and police officers would soon be obliged to take a 
back seat, because their jobs would be practically 
gone, and the money now spent in paying them 
would go to advance the interests of the colonies. 
Human slavery would also practically cease and 
women will not be forced to sell their bodies in 
order to get sufficient bread to live on. Idleness, 



58 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

one of the great helps to vice, will not be tolerated, 
but everyone will have to work to some extent and 
will be allowed to enjoy the full fruits of his labor, 
while everything which will aid and lead to the 
comfort and well being of man and beast will be 
within the reach of all. Of course, it is not sup- 
posed that in this world evil can be totally over- 
thrown. "We have already drawn attention to that 
fact and shown that it cannot be done, but it cer- 
tainly can be checked to such an extent by the plan 
we propose that the saving and help to the authori- 
ties will be enormous. 

-If a member breaks the rules prescribed by the 
government, renders himself obnoxious or commits 
a crime against society, he will be fired out in short 
order and sent, if necessary, to prison; but not 
within the colony, for it is not proposed to have a 
jail there, because their establishment will hardly 
be necessary, as it stands to reason that but few 
people will need them in a place where there is 
not any temptation to rob, for there will not be any 
hunger, or, for the matter of that, any money to 
steal. 

Where a man cannot get drunk, because he is 
limited on his time card and has not any money to 
get drunk on; where a woman has no temptation 
to prostitute her body; where low dens of vice are 
not tolerated because there is not any necessity for 
them; you can see at a glance the uselessness of 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 59 

jails and a crowd of peace officials, and the great 
saying to the national treasury by doing away with 
what will be only a useless expense. 



THE LIQUOE QUESTION. 

Eight here it becomes necessary to say some- 
thing on the question of allowing or not allowing 
beer, wines and liquors within the colonies, for 
there is no doubt whatever, should the government 
think proper to establish them, a cry will be raised 
by the fanatics to keep them out, just as they 
worked on Congress to abolish the army canteen 
to the detriment of the soldier, as I will show later 
on. 

It will not be possible in this little work to go 
into everything that is said for and against pro- 
hibition, so I will deal with the subject in a broad 
and general way, presenting some self-evident 
facts that any intelligent man or woman can ob- 
serve with but very slight effort on his or her part. 
As far back as we can go in history, taking also 
the history of the Bible, we find that intoxicating 
liquors in some shape or form were used by all 
civilized nations and by most peoples and tribes 
who were not civilized. 

Certain religions came in from time to time, 
some of which, like the Mohammedan forbade 
their use, and others like the Christian, not only 



60 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

allowing the use of wines and strong drink but in 
some cases advising it. Looking at the world then, 
as we see it today, I ask the questions, "What na- 
tions are ahead ? ' ' " What are the most civilized ? ' ' 
"What have made the most rapid advances in the 
arts and sciences?" "What are the most moral 
and free from vices?" "Are they the nations who 
have used intoxicants from as far back as we can 
learn, or are they the Turks and those whose re- 
ligion will not allow their use?" According to the 
rule of the prohibitionist, the total abstaining na- 
tions ought to be far in the lead, but, is it so ? On 
the contrary, is it not true, that where liquors and 
wines were forbidden, dangerous drugs, took their 
place like the opium and hashish of the east and 
produced a dreamy, non-progressive and in many 
cases emasculated people with some of the worst 
vices known to humanity? 

The Chinese used liquors like the Japanese, in 
a moderate way, but sank rapidly when England 
substituted and forced opium upon them, just as 
this American nation will sink if these cranks are 
allowed to have their way. A fearful evil is now 
menacing the prohibition states of the south and 
some of those misguided people who voted for that 
measure in the hope of keeping rum and whiskey 
from the negro are already beginning to find that 
they have "jumped from the frying pan into the 
fire," for the terrible drug, cocaine, is fastening 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 61 

itself upon the colored race and some of them do 
not care for liquor any longer. When a negro for 
ten cents can secure enough cocaine to give him 
what he calls three "dry drunks ", whiskey is to 
him a thing of the past, and this he seems able to 
do in spite of all laws and restrictions, for you 
will ever find that like liquors, wherever there is 
the demand and the money to meet it, there will 
ever be the supply, law or no law. 

What effect has this drug? It inflames those 
animal passions, already brutal, takes away all 
fear, rendering a man for the time partially insane, 
and the end is the wrecking of the whole nervous 
system and a miserable death. Yet this state of 
affairs is what ignorant and fanatical men and 
women and hypocritical politicians who are any- 
thing or everything in order to be on the " band- 
wagon" are bringing the country to. Better a 
hundred fold the licensed sale of beer and liquors, 
than a nation of dope-fiends. 

Another thing for your observation is this. 
Look about the community in which you live and 
size up the men who drink and those who do not. 
Of course, I leave out men who are known to be 
confirmed drunkards, and who form, after all, but 
a very small percentage of the drinking popula- 
tion, and if deprived of liquor will resort to drugs, 
and kill themselves out in the end, no matter what 
we may do. I refer to men who are known to 



62 PRACTICAL HUMANITY 

partake of liquors in moderation. Will you not 
find that the great majority of these men are more 
sociable, warm hearted, charitable, kinder to wom- 
en and children, more generous, more given to 
help their fellow man, live longer, and indeed, are 
more honest in business than teetotalers or those 
who profess to be? I am not dealing with excep- 
tions, I simply ask, will you not find the above vir- 
tues largely in the majority on the side of the 
moderate drinkers? I say they live longer be- 
cause they take the world easier, and are not ever 
working the brain in calculations and schemes, too 
often to "do" their fellow man, and I say, more 
honest because when you examine the lists of de- 
faulters in business houses and banks it will be 
found the majority did not drink, or so professed. 
As to helping humanity, I have been in more than 
one yellow fever epidemic, and am in a position to 
say that fully ten so called " drinking men" stood 
at their posts and many went down to death to 
every one prohibitionist, though most of the latter 
had before declared themselves ready to go to 
heaven, but it seemed it was not right away. The 
above represent a few of the reasons why it would 
be folly to bar liquors from the colonists in a moral 
sense, so now for an illustration or two to show 
why they should not be kept out both from a moral 
and business standpoint. First. Not many miles 
from where I am living there is situated on the 



PRACTICAL HUMANITY 63 

shores of one of the most beautiful bays in the 
country, a rising little city, with a present popula- 
tion of 10,000. Thirty years ago, but one house 
stood where that city now flourishes. It has 
saloons, licensed to sell wine, beer, or other spirit- 
uous or fermented liquors, and it is located in a 
license county, that I may here remark is making 
proportionate advances in comparison to some of 
the so-called "dry" counties that surround it. 
This city is not only increasing its resident popula- 
tion, but during the winter season, is so crowded 
with tourists that at times it has been found im- 
possible to accommodate the number. Many of 
these tourists do not drink and a larger proportion 
of them never enter a saloon from the time they 
arrive until they leave. Liquors are sold in that 
city and the crowd goes there. Do they go to drink 
or get drunk ? No, because it is a rare thing to see 
an intoxicated man on the streets, and should he 
show himself, he is very readily taken care of. 
There must also be fairly good order for a marshal 
and an assistant comprise the police force. When 
this city was but a village, this was not the case, 
for it was not licensed then and jugs and "blind 
tigers" were strongly in evidence, and on Satur- 
day evenings especially, it was no uncommon thing 
to find a dozen or more intoxicated men hanging 
around the docks, cursing and swearing and throw- 
ing in an occasional fight by way of a relish, so 



64 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

respectable citizens did not care to locate there. 
This state of affairs ceased with the establishment 
of the saloons, and I now warn some of our good 
prohibition people against dropping down dead 
with astonishment when I make the assertion that 
the law and order element is largely indebted to 
those saloons for the present orderly state of af- 
fairs. "How so"? You ask. Because they are 
conducted, not as such places are usually run, but 
as they should be run. First and foremost, they 
have knocked out the " blind tiger," the drug store 
trade and the jug trade, and strictly observe the 
law as to hours of opening and closing. Next, any 
person showing signs of intoxication cannot get 
a drink in one of them, and minors are rigidly ex- 
cluded. On Christmas days, when people are 
tempted to drink a little too much, these saloons 
close of their own accord, not being compelled to 
do so by law. Summer and winter you see the move 
of business. It has fine streets and car service, 
and shows at all times every sign of prosperity. 
Now we will change the picture and take you 
to a beautiful little town situated on perhaps the 
finest river in the state, with natural advantages 
fully as great and some say greater than the city 
mentioned. It is not a licensed town, but depends 
upon the " blind tiger" and jug trade. There are 
some of the best and most enterprising citizens of 
the country there, but there are others who 



PKACTICAL HUMANITY 65 

hamper them in the desire to advance. If religion 
and prayers can build a city, that town, by this 
time, ought to be a metropolis. There is a revival, 
almost every two months or so, and when any citi- 
zens get bowled over on " blind tiger " whiskey be- 
tween times, there is then a chance of getting on 
their legs again. The godly banging of bells may 
be heard all days in the week calling the people to 
prayer meetings and devotion. Yet thousands of 
dollars have been spent there in public improve- 
ments that came to nothing, and active business 
men have departed and taken up their quarters 
in the aforesaid city. It has one of the finest 
tourist hotels in the state, that has not paid ex- 
penses. A few tourists run in there in the winter, 
but not to stay. "Does it grow at all?" you ask, 
"Yes," but for every house that goes up in it, 
ten go up in the other, and you may well inquire 
what is the reason that the city flourishes and this 
beautiful town, with all its fine scenery is prac- 
tically at a standstill? If you are a fanatical pro- 
hibitionist I cannot give you a reason, because 
fanatics never reason or listen to it and I might 
just as well waste words on a stump, but if you 
are a sensible man or woman I will tell you, for 
in the words of the Scotch bard 

"A duel's amang ye takin' notes 
And faith he'll prent it." 



66 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

The reason is that in the first city and the county 
in which it is located a man is granted his personal 
liberty as to what he shall eat and what he shall 
drink, and in this town and in the county in which 
it is located, he is not granted it, and the great 
masses of the people, though many may not use 
beer or liquors, w T ill not go for either rest or 
recreation or business where the right to purchase 
and drink a glass of wine or other stimulant is 
denied them by law. But is not liquor sold in that 
town and county, and cannot a man get it if he 
wants it? Of course it is, and he can get it, but 
on the sly and against the law. It is the principal 
of the thing people "kick" at, not the fact of its 
being obtainable. It is his right as a man and a 
citizen he is contending for, and where he cannot 
get that right he will not go. Is liquor sold there ? 
I should say so, and will state also from observa- 
tion and the best information obtainable, that in 
proportion to the population, there is more con- 
sumed in that town and unlicensed county than in 
the licensed city referred to and the licensed 
county in which it is located. More drunkenness, 
I say, because where the sale is legalized a large 
number of men will go in, take a drink, and walk 
out about their business, and where it is not legal- 
ized but sold on the quiet and brought in by the 
case and jug, it is too often the signal for a regular 
old "tank up." 



PRACTICAL HUMANITY 67 

License and regulate the sale of liquors in this 
town and county and if the former does not give 
the city a close run in business and growth within 
a very short time and the county double its popula- 
tion in less than half the time it has taken to do it 
heretofore, I will be ready to admit that my 
reasoning had only a sand foundation. Oh! cry 
some of the good people in this town,* who are so 
selfish of their religion that they would like a 
heaven apiece go as to have plenty of room. "If 
we license the sale of liquors we will have a vast 
crowd of wicked ungodly people pouring in. Well, 
good people, what are you here for? Does the 
religion you profess call the righteous or sinners 
to repentance? Do you suppose there is not any 
body in the world has a soul to be saved but your- 
selves? Should you not go out into the highways 
and hedges and compel them to come in? Granted 
that it will do so, and since you profess to be so 
very good we will look at it in a religious light 
and a business sense also. In a licensed town 
where people are allowed their personal freedom, 
the ungodly, if you choose to call them such, to 
distinguish them from yourselves, come pouring 
in to spend their money and have what is called 
a "good time," but lo! and behold! right in their 
wake here come the godly forces, in order to con- 
vert the ungodly. It is an illustration of the old 
refrain, 



68 PRACTICAL HUMANITY 

"On the wings of love we fly 

From groceree to groceri." 
Should you then in time have to enlarge the 
jail, in order to accommodate the more obstreper- 
ous among the ungodly, don't you see you also 
have to enlarge the churches or build new ones in 
order to make room for the number of converts 
you have taken from their ranks? Now do you 
"catch on?" This has been the history of most 
of the big cities and of every western city in the 
United States. Stay as you are and you may have 
a quiet, plodding outwardly moral little town, but 
it will never amount to a "row of pins" as a city 
or business center. 

The next illustration is what is known in the 
army as the canteen. The move to abolish this 
was sprung upon congress by women and band- 
wagon politicians, the great majority of whom did 
not know what a canteen was. Most of those good 
ladies who left homes and husbands and children 
to look out for themselves and rushed into Wash- 
ington to lobby against the canteen supposed it 
was nothing more than a drinking den attached to 
each army post, where soldiers could go to get 
what liquor they wanted, and get drunk if so in- 
clined. In fact they had persuaded themselves, 
without the exercise of proper investigation or 
judgment, which latter indeed is an unknown 
quantity with prohibitionists, that the canteen was 



PKACTICAL HUMANITY 69 

a menace to the moral standing of the soldier, in- 
stead of one of his best safeguards against dis- 
sipation. The army canteen was a sort of store 
where the soldier could obtain quite a variety of 
little delicacies, such as canned fruits, preserves, 
etc., which are not provided in the regular army 
ration. The only intoxicating beverage allowed 
to be sold him was beer, and but a limited quantity 
of that, to be obtained by so many tickets issued 
to him on his request and charged up against his 
pay. The proceeds were directed for the welfare 
of the men and outside contractors were shut out. 
A soldier showing the slightest sign of intoxica- 
tion could not obtain any beer and being under 
the direct control and supervision of the army 
officers, drunkenness was checked. So long as 
the soldier had his b§er, it has been proved by 
experience that there was not the desire to break 
loose when on leave such as is the case since a 
stop has been put to it, and the officers who ought 
to know and the police of the cities where army 
posts are located have borne and are now bearing 
evidence to this bad state of affairs. This is the 
reason we find the large majority of the officers 
with Gen. Miles at the head, all advocating the re- 
establishment of the canteen. They see the low 
dives that spring up about the posts, playing havoc 
with the sobriety of the men and they see how 
hard it is to get enlistments, for men do not care 



70 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

to go where they are deprived by law of what 
most of them have ever been accustomed to. It is 
found to be the cause of many desertions, so that 
from unwillingness to enlist and desertions, some 
regiments are reduced to squads, let alone com- 
panies. What is more, the government on its own 
motion has been obliged to prohibit the sale at 
the army posts, of a certain dope drink that is 
consumed by the wholesale by prohibitionists, men 
and women, because the soldiers had substituted it 
for beer and it was destroying their nervous 
systems and digestive organs, something they 
never had to complain of when beer was the bever- 
age. Such are some of the results of a fanatical 
and sentimental movement that was crowded upon 
congress. It was surely a sight for gods and men, 
the means that were resorted to for the passing of 
that measure. Women, unsexing themselves in 
their eagerness to obtain votes; buttonholing con- 
gressmen; using every wile known to the sex to 
get members to vote against conviction and bet- 
ter judgment. The member who dared to do right 
and proclaim against the bill was greeted with 
frowns and frozen silence from the feminine 
crowded galleries, while the band-wagon man was 
applauded and smiled upon. Oh! it was a sad 
sight when the measure was at last rushed 
through, to see some of those members who had 
helped to deal that blow to the army, slinking 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 71 

from the halls with downcast eyes, not daring to 
look a soldier in the face after voting away his 
freedom, passing out, figuratively speaking, under 
the shadow of a petticoat, which for the first time 
in the history of these great United States, floated 
o'er the dome of the capitol in pl-ace of the star 
spangled banner of liberty. 

In the face of the above, would it not be the 
height of folly to try and impose a prohibitory 
liquor law on these colonies if once established? 
We will have in them, what may be termed a cos- 
mopolitan population, a large proportion of them, 
those, or the direct decendants of those, who 
have been accustomed to use beer and wine at 
their meals almost in the same manner as others 
use tea or coffee. I mean such as the Germans, 
French, Spaniards and Italians. Of course, one of 
the stock arguments used by those who would 
prohibit liquors to these people and to the mil- 
lions of others who use them in moderation, is that 
of our "weak brother" and the danger of putting 
temptation in his way. In other words you must 
not take a glass of beer because your "weak 
brother" cannot take one without taking more 
and getting drunk. It might as well be said, you 
must not keep a horse because the "weak brother" 
is a bad driver and may get killed by his at any 
time. Dr. Borden P. Bowne, professor of philos- 
ophy in Boston University, as reported in the 



72 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

Literary Digest of Sept. 25, 1909, has something 
on this ' ' weak brother ' ' question. He declares that 
"St. Paul was on the side of liberty, and was not 
willing to have his liberty judged of another man's 
conscience. " We read further: "This matter of 
the 'weak brother' has been very much misunder- 
stood. In deciding what is right or wrong in it- 
self, the ' weak brother' can not be considered at all. 
This is a question purely of truth and right reason. 
To declare obligatory, out of regard for the 'weak 
brother', something which is not obligatory, is false 
and dangerous. It makes ignorance and prejudice 
and weakness, rather than the truth of things, the 
ground of legislation. It produces an artificial 
and fictitious code which is sure to produce revolt 
when it is seen through. It obscures the eternal 
obligations of justice and righteousness by petty 
fussiness about the tithing of mint, anise, and 
cumin. Now this is undue deference to the 'weak 
brother', and must never be allowed." Common 
sense must tell us that Dr. Bowne is correct for 
our "weak brother" is getting to be rather an ex- 
pensive article and in many instances a most con- 
founded nuisance. He has raised taxes in the state 
of Georgia, up to the maximum allowed by law 
and closed several schools in the city of Mobile, 
Alabama; he paralyzes business and drives out 
money; so does it not become a duty to look out a 
little for the welfare of our families and selves, let 



PKACTICAL HUMANITY 73 

alone the vast crowd of the general public, before 
shedding so many sentimental tears over the case 
of our "weak brother?" 

To dictate to the colonists as to what they shall 
eat or drink would practically ruin the whole en- 
terprise, because a vast number of people would 
sooner live on starvation wages than go where 
their personal liberty is interfered with, and should 
such people be driven by stress of circumstances 
into the colony, it would only be to get out at the 
very first opportunity instead of remaining and 
taking an interest in the general welfare. Wc 
might just as well give up the idea of founding 
these colonies at all as to establish them under a 
hypocritical prohibition law and expect them to be 
a success. 

BBEWEBIES, DISTILLEKIES, ETC. 

One of the greatest evils also this country has 
had to contend against in connection with the 
liquor traffic was the fearful adulteration. The 
vilest kind of decoctions, calculated to drive men 
crazy instead of making them drunk, if imbibed in 
any quantity, were put upon the market under the 
names of whiskey, wine, etc., etc. There is often 
a truth hidden in a jest and if a great proportion 
of the liquors sent out had been actually branded, 
"Greased Lightning," "Kill at Forty Rods," and 



74 PEAGTICAL HUMANITY 

" Sudden Death/' names given by people in a 
humorous way, they would hit the mark fairly well. 
The pure food law has checked this to a great 
extent, so far as the wholesale trade is concerned, 
but so long as there is high license, there will be 
the temptation to adulterate, and as a rule, the 
higher the license the poorer the article dealt out 
to the consumer. Within these colonies, however, 
all this temptation can be done away with, be- 
cause the government can operate their own 
breweries, distilleries and wine presses and super- 
vise everything connected with the manufacture. 
The hops, corn, wheat and grapes can all be grown 
within the colonies, the inspectors see that every- 
thing is up to the mark, and that what is dealt out 
to the people is the pure unadulterated article, 
whether it be whiskey, beer or wine. Citizens who 
object to the liquor traffic only on the ground of 
saloons, may be satisfied with the knowledge that 
it will not be necessary to have them in these 
colonies, for the liquors can be sold at the govern- 
ment stores, just as you purchase groceries, or 
they can be obtained at the cafes and restaurants, 
either at meals or between meals, and while moder- 
ate drinkers can obtain all they desire, the officials 
have it in their power to limit the man who is in- 
clined to go to excess, when he presents his time 
card, or in their judgment cut him off altogether 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 75 

if nothing else can be done, just as the business 
was regulated at the army canteen. 

The reader can see then that by the adoption of 
the above system we practically do away with two 
evils that have been the great cause of complaint, 
viz: The adulteration of wines and liquors and 
excess in their consumption and we secure three 
great advantages to the people, viz : The obtaining 
of the perfectly pure unadulterated article, the 
regulation of the sale so as to prevent drunkenness 
and last but by no means least an immense revenue 
to the Federal government. I feel therefore per- 
fectly safe in submitting the above plan to the con- 
sideration of all intelligent and common sense 
citizens, believing it will meet with the approval 
of the vast majority. 

SAVING TO THE PEOPLE. 

While cutting out much of the expense to which 
the authorities are now put for the preservation of 
law and order, sill of which in the end has to come 
out of the pockets of the people in the shape of 
taxes, it is very important to note that within the 
limits of these colonies it is not proposed to have 
any taxation. Tax assessors and tax collectors will 
be unknown officials, while the real and personal 
property, being directly under the control of the 
government, it is only reasonable to suppose the 



76 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

colonial buildings will be constructed as fireproof 
as possible, so doing away with the enormous 
amounts of money now paid out to fire insurance 
companies, while the immense losses to property 
swept by fire devastation will become things of the 
past. Nor will there be any necessity for the insur- 
ance of human life, as the means taken to prolong 
that life and provide for the sick, infirm and aged 
will put an end to what will be then practically a 
useless outlay. There will not be any longer a call 
to support poorhouses or farms or charitable insti- 
tutions when the government obligates itself to 
look out for each citizen when natural infirmity 
will prevent him from doing it for himself or her- 
self, so the necessity of saving or laying up pro- 
vision for a rainy day will not any longer exist. 
Where a citizen's health will not allow him to live 
in a colony where the climatic conditions are un- 
favorable, he or she can be transferred to another 
colony north or south, as the case may be, without 
expense to the parties concerned. Three meals 
per day will be served in the government restau- 
rants, of the best food that can be obtained, to 
every man, woman and child, and such being the 
case, the sensible reader can see at a glance that 
slavery of the poor man and drudgery of the poor 
woman will pass into oblivion. He will no longer 
have to toil at starvation wages and she no longer 
wear herself out cooking insufficient food over a 



PKACTICAL HUMANITY 77 

hot stove and perhaps doing the family washing 
and nursing a baby at the same time. Just think 
of it! the needless labor so many of the human 
race are now called upon to perform that a small 
percentage of that race can live in luxury over the 
money soaked from the vitals of the poor. When 
you consider that it takes from one to two days 
per week of a man's labor to pay now for the 
shelter of the roof he sleeps under and that in 
these colonies it will require only one to three 
hours per week, you can at once see the philosophy 
of insisting that the Federal Government at once 
make a move in this direction, because when we 
look over the country and observe things as they 
are, as I have shown them up in this book, and 
then consider matters as they might be made, 
every day lost is nothing more than a crime against 
humanity. Ask yourselves the question, how 
much is this government about to spend in the 
construction of the Panama canal? We will not 
hit far under the mark when we put it at three 
hundred million dollars; so supposing it would 
spend that amount to put these colonies on their 
feet, just think of the difference in the possible 
good to come from the investment. Imagine, if 
you can, the vast benefit to the human race and the 
eventual prosperity of this nation which could be 
made by such action a shining light to the people 
of the world. A last note under this head will call 



78 PRACTICAL HUMANITY 

attention to the fact that this colonial scheme will 
prove a benefit to the country at large by raising 
wages, because the trades will be under expe- 
rienced government foremen and the apprentices 
instructed in the highest grades of the work. 
When there is a call outside for good mechanics, 
or a rush of work, and the cry is, " Where can we 
get them?" the answer comes, "Go to the colony." 
A man desiring a good, healthy wife, who will 
bear him children that will be a credit to the na- 
tion, need not bother his head with the advertise- 
ments of any matrimonial paper, but — go to the 
colony. There is no doubt about it but that the 
whole plan, if properly carried out, with limited 
work, pure food and strict sanitary regulation, 
will tend to keep men and women in a healthy con- 
dition and so produce strong, robust children for 
these states, and as a consequence prolong life 
far ahead of what the limit is now with the present 
high pressure and luxurious living on the one side 
and the laborious work and at times starvation 
wages on the other. 

QUESTION OF EXPENSE. 

Do you suppose for one moment, you ask, that 
the government of the United States will go to 
the immense expense of establishing colonies such 
as you propose in every state in the Union? I 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 79 

reply by saying that it would eventually be money 
in the government treasury if it spent some of the 
vast stores now put out in instruments to destroy 
humanity in an effort to save humanity. And as 
to the money in time coming back to the treasury, 
we can take an example and see what could be 
done in one state alone, viz., Florida. The ever- 
glades in this state can be purchased at very low 
figures, and when a ship canal has been cut 
through them and the land drained by a proper 
system of dykes, it will produce enough sugar to 
supply the world. Alcohol, a by-product, can be 
produced in such quantity as to keep the colonies 
in fuel, making them independent of the coal 
barons and the Standard Oil Trust, and outside of 
this there will be sufficient waste to fertilize the 
soil and keep it in condition for ages to come. 
However all this may be, it is not the purpose to 
ask the Federal Government to do this for noth- 
ing. Let bonds be issued for the land purchased 
from the various states, payable within certain 
periods. All well and good, you say, but how do 
you propose to pay these bonds? The answer to 
this is very simple. Let a certain portion of the 
time everyone puts in at the colony be given to 
the government. For every hour taken off his 
time card let a percentage with the productions or 
proceeds derived from it be set aside for the liqui- 
dation of these bonds until the debt to the gov- 



80 PKACTICAL HUMANITY 

eminent is paid. There is the solution of that 
little problem, we may almost say, "in a nutshell." 

PURCHASE OF PEIVATE LAXDS. 

It may be said and no doubt with good founda- 
tion, that in the more thickly settled states, neither 
the Federal nor State governments have any land 
at their disposal that is suitable for the establish- 
ment of such colonies as proposed. If the plan is 
adopted, however, and the government should de- 
sire to utilize them for some of its own work, what 
is to prevent the purchase of land from private 
citizens? Of course you will say, this will be rather 
expensive and will take a large amount of money. 
True, but figure out the revenue that will eventual- 
ly come into the national treasury. The bonds for 
all these lands can be floated for a period of say 
thirty years, which will allow plenty of time for 
the government to realize upon its enterprise. 
What is to prevent also, the purchase of land on 
some river or harbor, in one or more states border- 
ing on the coast that will be suitable for ship con- 
struction and a navy yard? So long as Uncle Sam, 
thinks it necessarv to build men of war, and manu- 
facture cannon and rifles and gunpowder, why 
should he not do his own work and utilize the 
colony and its citizens for that purpose? Every- 
thing could be there under his own supervision 
without any chance for grafting by unprincipled 



PRACTICAL HUMANITY 81 

contractors. His experienced and paid inspectors 
could be there to oversee the work, so that he need 
no longer fear for his battle ships on account of de- 
fective armour plate, or cannons, that might be 
subject to the question as to where was the safest 
place to stand when they were fired, whether in 
front, or take vour chances with "the man behind 
the gun?" The big percentages made by former 
contractors would become things of the past, and 
the savings all go to the general good of the coun- 
try at large. The same reasoning can be made in 
connection with nearlv all the necessarv work car- 
ried on by the government within the limits of the 
states. Powder mills, naval stores, arsenals, ship 
building, foundries for manufacture of cannon 
and rifles, and all instruments of destruction. Of 
course it is a sad matter that civilized governments 
have to do this kind of work, and the dav will 
come, and is now breaking on the distant horizon 
of time when they will mutually agree to stop 
murdering each other and settle disputes by arbi- 
tration, but so long as Uncle Sam is compelled to do 
his share, better do the killing in first class shape 
and at the least expense to himself. 

"WHY THE FEDEEAL GOYERXMEXT?" 

The above question is sure to be asked. Why 
do you desire to put these colonies under the con- 
trol and direction of the central government and 



82 PRACTICAL HUMANITY 

not allow each state to manage its own colony? 
The answer again is simple. It is because "all the 
fools are not dead yet/ 7 and a great proportion of 
the states appear to have a large share of the fool 
commodity. No sooner would a colony be estab- 
lished than every crank, religious fanatic, and fad- 
dist would be on hand to lumber up the statute 
book with paternal and freak laws, just as they are 
doing now, that have as much effect for the better- 
ment and reformation of the human race as water 
thrown on a duck's back. There are laws enough 
on the statute books of the states of Florida, 
Georgia and Alabama, to rule the universe, many 
of them a laughing stock to sensible people, while 
it would take an army of police and deputy sheriffs 
to enforce the half of them. 

In case issue should be joined on this statement, 
let me review a few of the important! statutes 
passed at the last session of the Georgia legisla- 
ture. One prohibits females over the age of 12, 
not circus riders, from riding astride, though why 
an exception should be made in the case of a circus 
rider is a question for a Solomon. Another pro- 
hibits the playing of football and baseball in any 
school in the state or by the students of any school. 
This is calculated to train some fine athletic young 
men no doubt °l 

Next, all trains must stop at every station in 
the state. The philosophy of this is self-evident. 



PRACTICAL HUMANITY 83 

It is for the interest and protection of the farmer; 
because should a farmer's wife at any of these 
little stations wish to send a dozen eggs to market, 
and has only eleven on hand, it is proper the ex- 
press train should be held up until the hen lays 
the other egg; so a little wisdom appears in the 
enacting of this law. 

Under the next statute a young man under 21 
or woman under 18, no matter how much money 
may be in his or her possession, can not purchase 
groceries or goods of any kind, even though neces- 
sary for the preservation of life. 

The state must be a hive for mosquitoes for an- 
other statute compels hotel keepers to supply 
mosquito bars over each bed, while the next obliges 
him to supply sheets to each bed not less in length 
than nine feet. Surely there must be some tall 
men in the state, or did the legislators dream they 
were living in the times of Noah, when, we are told, 
" There w T ere giants on the earth/' One would 
think on reading them over that prohibition had 
made away with their mental powers, or it might 
have been over indulgence in a certain " temper- 
ance" beverage now sold in great quantities in 
that state, called "near beer." 

Florida was not so far behind in passing a 
statute against gambling, that Governor Gilchrist 
refused to sign, which would in the first place re- 
quire an army of deputy sheriffs to enforce it, and 



84 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

again if enforced would send ladies to jail for 
playing "Bridge" in their houses for prizes, or 
boys for playing marbles. It is noticeable though, 
that this Florida statute is not to become opera- 
tive,until May 1911, no doubt to give certain parties 
an opportunity to do a little more betting and 
swindling on horseraces. You can therefore see 
good people, what folly it would be to submit these 
colonists to such crank legislation. 

The central government is not so much 
given to fads and cranks and it can and does en- 
force its laws, which is more than any state in the 
Union has been able to do yet whenever public 
sentiment said ' ' No. ' ' The only salvation for these 
colonies is to have the protection and rule of the 
central government. What is more, an inter- 
change of time cards, products and people can be 
had under the Federal Government, which could 
not be the case if every state ran its own colony. 
The climate also, as before stated, makes it neces- 
sary for certain citizens to move from one colony 
to another and this could only be effectually and 
readily done under the head government. 

RELIGION. 

I now dwell briefly upon a subject upon which 
people as a rule are very touchy and I propose to 
treat it in all respect, for every man has a right to 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 85 

his own religious opinions, or to have none at all, 
as the case may be, and so long as he does not de- 
sire to club his ideas into the head of his neighbour 
he has the privilege to be let alone. But dealing 
with this question as a national one, it is necessary 
to note the fact that the Constitution of the 
United States does not recognize any religion. 
The framers of that important document were wise 
in their generation, and looking ahead they saw 
the nation was destined to be builded up by a cos- 
mopolitan people, by men of many nationalities 
and creeds that would only cause war and dissen- 
sion was any one religion established, and so de- 
creed that " Congress shall make no law respecting 
an establishment of religion. " It was wisely de- 
cided (using a common expression) that every tub 
had to stand upon its own bottom, and the tub that 
did not have any bottom had to stand the best way 
it could. They even went so far through the in- 
strumentality of Benjamin Franklin to keep out 
the name of the Deity, lest, as Franklin said, it 
should interfere with some man's religious opin- 
ions. Under the Constitution then, the Christian, 
Jew, Free-thinker, Mohammedan, etc., stand just on 
the same footing, and any sensible reader, if he for 
one minute can set aside his prejudices and reflect, 
will see what confusion and strife it would cause 
in colonies such as these, ruled under the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, to admit the hundred or 



86 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

more warring sects and creeds that are now scat- 
tered over the land. These are ever on the in- 
crease, bringing daily into the field some new sys- 
tem of theology that must be received without 
question under the pain and penalty of divine dis- 
pleasure. While I am ready to admit that their 
intentions for the welfare of the human race may 
be honest enough, at the same time intelligent 
readers can see that the fanaticism of these people 
and the hatred each sect bears to the other for the 
love of God, might only end in such trouble as to 
break up the whole business. It must be under- 
stood that a colonist will not be forbidden to exer- 
cise his particular creed, for he has this right under 
the same Constitution; but if he worships it must 
be in the privacy of his own home, or there is noth- 
ing to prevent his taking a conveyance or getting 
on a street car and going to any place of public 
worship he may choose, only let it be located with- 
out the boundaries of the colony and not within. 
Follow the Constitution strictly in everything. 

THE NATIONAL FAMILY. 

It has been remarked that the national govern- 
ment, symbolized by the historic figure of " Uncle 
Sam", is the head of the national family, and all 
who are born under or are naturalized or have 
sworn allegiance to the flag, are in a sense the 



PKACTICAL HUMANITY 87 

children of the government. It is the recognized 
duty of the head of any family to look after the 
welfare of every member and see that each one is 
properly fed and clothed, as well as cared for in 
case of distress or sickness. To look out for the 
good of every one of those who acknowledge him 
as the head, is the plain duty of Uncle Sam and if 
he shirks or neglects it, the inevitable penalty will 
follow and fall upon his own head, because, 
hungry, discontented and neglected children are 
apt to lose all love and affection for the head of 
the family, and possibly break out in open rebel- 
lion. If the parent however is mindful of the 
bodily wants of his children and shows that he has 
an interest in their temporal welfare, he holds their 
affection and loyalty, and should the time come 
when the assistance of the children is asked to aid 
the parent in case of any national calamity or 
danger, they will always be found ready to rally 
around the flag. In no way in my humble opinion 
can Uncle Sam ever show his regard for the wants 
of his national children than in paying attention 
to them as suggested in the plan set forth. He 
can go even further in building up the nation, and 
we will say for example that a young man brought 
up in the colony at whatever trade or profession 
he is best found suited for, desires to leave and 
start outside on his own account. If for instance, 
agriculture is his choice, Uncle Sam can say, "All 



88 PRACTICAL HUMANITY 

right my lad, here is forty or fifty acres of good 
land for you, pitch in and see what you can do.' y 
It may even pay the government to go further, 
and give him a start in supplying seed and imple- 
ments, etc., and possibly building him a small 
house. If he succeeds all the better for himself 
and the country; but say he should make a failure, 
and through force of circumstances finds himself in 
difficulties and unable to make good, what, we may 
ask, is he to do? Is he to be allowed to sink into 
poverty or starve % No ; Uncle Sam can say, "Here 
my lad, you have been unfortunate, but don't give 
up altogether, there is no necessity for that, come 
back into the colony, I will look out for you still, 
and find enough work there of some kind to keep 
you above hunger and want." So we might go 
on with examples on all the different trades and 
professions, tending to show that wherever the 
child of the government shows a willingness to do 
his or her duty by the country, that government 
owes it to the child to look out for its temporal 
welfare from the cradle to the grave. 

OPPOSITION. 

Is this plan likely to meet any opposition? 
"Yes," we can readily look out for that and be 
prepared according^. The money power will 
fight it to a finish, for it strikes at the very foun- 



PEACTICAL HUMANITY 89 

dation of their system and seeks to curb their 
grasping cupidity. The trusts and monopolies, 
will turn up their eyes and elevate hands in holy 
horror and their cry will go up to heaven, "Oh! 
good people, where do we come in?" Ah! that is 
the shout, and what a howl will be raised when 
the answer is returned, "Why, boys, you just 
don't come in at all." You have had your innings 
and been a long time at it and have done very well 
for yourselves, all things considered. You have 
kept the people from the bat and held all the bases 
and showed a good amount of originality in doing 
it. Now the umpire says ' ' Out ! ' ? and let the people 
have a show. 

There is no doubt about the issue this propo- 
sition will raise, for the money power will at once 
see its danger and will do all in its power to mis- 
represent and blockade every move to establish 
these colonies. It will try and find dupes amongst 
the people because it will need them to produce 
slaves. 

Yet,, consider for a little, Oh! citizens, and look 
at the millions of men and women in this great 
country who have influence and good intentions; 
who can, if they so desire, break the money power 
and compel the Congress of the United States to 
at once adopt the means for the benefit of humanity 
as outlined in this little book. What is more, these 
colonies will be opposed by a certain class of 



90 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

American society, so-called. Why? Because mod- 
ern society must reconstruct itself or come to 
smash at the hands of the colonists. "Whom the 
gods would destroy they first make mad," is an 
old pagan saying that has much of truth in it, and 
though it is plain to any observer, yet you close 
your eyes to the fact that you are sleeping over a 
volcano, as I said before, that may burst when 
least expected. To take a lesson in time you must 
stop your race murder, banish your divorce courts, 
cease your oppression and robbery of the poor 
and proceed upon a thorough system of regenera- 
tion; otherwise you have one of two things to con- 
front : you will either be torn to pieces by revolu- 
tion or swamped by the colonists, and should the 
warning go unheeded I sincerely hope the latter 
may be the result rather than the former. For 
your own preservation the warning should be 
heeded, ever remembering there is a limit to every- 
thing as there is to the patience of the American 
people. 

CONCLUSION. 

After much thought, observation and expe- 
rience I have now endeavored to place before 
you a plan that is in my humble opinion feasible 
for the giving of a helping hand to the struggling 
humanity of the country ; that will check cupidity 



PRACTICAL HUMANITY 91 

and tend greatly to do away with poverty, so re- 
ducing the ranks of the criminal army; that will, 
lessen expense, reduce taxation, give contentment, 
raise wages, check disease and preserve the vital- 
ity of the people of these United States. I do not 
pose as a saint or a dictator, but simply speak as 
an intelligent, practical man to intelligent, prac- 
tical men and women. I only ask that you read 
this treatise and take it for what you think it is 
worth. Ask yourself if I have in it pictured things 
as they are? Have I told the truth? If so, and 
you believe the problem can be solved by the adop- 
tion of the plan proposed, I respectfully ask, Are 
you not by reason of your duty to poor humanity 
to lend a helping hand and assist in carrying it 
out? For myself I can honestly say without fear 
of successful contradiction that whatever presi- 
dent of these United States would take the first 
step toward inaugurating the colonial system as 
outlined in this book will have done more for the 
benefit of the human race than any man that has 
ever lived that we have any knowledge of in 
history. 



APPENDIX 

It was in the fall of 1870 when I first met him 
and felt then that it was impossible for anyone to 
see him and get acquainted with him and keep 
from loving him. While he had been brought into 
the world in 1776, he did not appear to me any older 
than a youth of about nineteen summers — strong, 
robust and the living picture of health. I found 
him also very kind-hearted, honest to a fault and 
possessed of good will toward men. Being of great 
interest to me I studied his history and learned 
that at birth he was much smaller than the aver- 
age infant, but strong and healthy from the first. 
The men assisting at his birth have never been 
excelled in character or talent by any that the 
world ever produced, while his ancestors were of 
the best of people. His birth, while most impor- 
tant for the world at large, was not accomplished 
without much labor and bloodshed. These men 
having ushered the infant into active life, framed 
a set of rules by which he should be raised and 
guided, while at the same time he was surrounded 
by wise, foreseeing councilors who were always 
ready with the best of advice. He was told to be 
honest and true-hearted; to be kind to everybody; 
to open his heart and doors to the poor, the weak, 

93 



94 PKACTICAL HUMANITY 

the infirm and all those who may have been driven 
from their homes by religious intolerance or grasp- 
ing tyrants. He was instructed to mind his own 
business; to give no cause for trouble, and to allow 
everyone to go to heaven after his own fashion 
and not permit any particular church or creed to 
force itself upon his private affairs. He was ad- 
vised to live frugal, to exclude luxury and to be 
industrious. All the above were embodied in the 
rules laid down and the advice given by his 
experienced councilors. 

The best of men cannot live in peace if it does 
not suit their bad neighbors, and in consequence 
our friend was obliged to fight some of these un- 
ruly neighbors more than once ; which fights, how- 
ever, did not weaken him but only strengthened 
his young body and helped him grow. He im- 
ported a great deal of food and other commodities 
and prospered well under that diet. Everything 
went along smoothly until a family quarrel took 
place and members of his own household came to a 
disagreement, the result of which was a long, 
serious fight, that lasted several years — father 
against son and brother against brother. When 
peace was at last restored our friend found a 
great number of his kinfolk dead or wounded, 
himself heavily in debt, and right here is where his 
downfall began. At the conclusion of this trouble 
one of his best friends, who might have succeeded 



PRACTICAL HUMANITY Jj 

in establishing things on the original basis, was 
foully murdered, while one by one all of his most 
able advisers passed away and there were not any 
new ones to take their places until now he has but 
one true friend left. His enormous debts result- 
ing from this family warfare had to be liquidated 
in some way, and the wise men being out of the 
road, the way was left open for the entrance of 
trusts, grafters, thieves and swindlers, who came 
to the front in such numbers that honesty was 
almost an unknown quantity. Our friend's crops 
and productions are viewed with suspicion and in 
consequence the demand lessened, and the robust, 
fine looking young fellow I met in 1870 began to 
wilt long before he could mature. Many quack 
doctors who had taken the places of the old, wise, 
honest guides, gave advice of their own which 
was followed only to hasten the ultimate ruin of 
our friend. They advised against the importation 
of food from Europe and our own climate being ad- 
verse to the production of vigorous and healthy 
white people; degeneration of our friend is the 
natural consequence. The extreme heat during the 
summer months in practically every state in the 
Union produces thin blood; the nerves feed on 
blood, and this thin product cannot make strong 
and healthy nerves. No nerves, no mind, no body. 
The best and strongest of the European foods 
which would tend to remedy this state of affairs 



96 PEACTICAL HUMANITY 

being practically excluded, disaster is the ultimate 
result. There also comes to the front an advisory 
board consisting of women and petticoated men, 
who as a remedy introduce a microbe in the form 
of a religion called " Prohibition," clearly against 
the rules and advice given by the old wise coun- 
cilors. In some of the states this religion has 
overthrown the Christian and all other religions, 
and has taken the word " Liberty" off the banner 
carried by this Youth and placed there in its stead 
the word " prohibition." This microbe religion is 
spreading, to the ruin of this at one time promis- 
ing youth; and so we find his business going, his 
debts increasing, his taxes piling up, his limbs 
withering, and his cough bad, while his bogus, 
hypocritical doctors will not permit any healthy 
life speeding cure, making his doom only a matter 
of time. 

A new disease has also made its appearance 
within the last five years, known as the "Yellow 
Peril," that is looming like a vast cloud in the West 
and growing greater every day, and it is not out 
of place to remark that if our young friend does 
not, before it is too late, assert his manhood, tell 
all his advisers and quack doctors to go to a place 
where some of them say there is not any frost or 
snow, and resort once more to nature's remedies, 
the Yellow Peril will find him an easy victim. 

R MUGGE. 



*5) 




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